Man guilty of murdering 9-year-old girl in Boston, Lincolnshire

A man living in Boston in Lincolnshire has been found guilty of murdering a nine-year-old girl in the street in 2023.

Deividas Skebas, 26, formerly of Alcorn Green, Boston, fatally stabbed Lilya Valytute as she was playing outside a shop in Fountain Street, Boston. Skebas circled round the scene of the killing, avoiding other passers by and attacked when Lilya and her sister were alone. 

He fled the scene, leaving Liya’s mother and an off duty police officer trying in vain to save Lilya’s life.  

After he killed Lilya, Skebas tried to secure loans from his family to flee the country. He changed his appearance, including shaving off his beard. He was tracked down by police and arrested for Lilya’s murder.

Skebas had a history of mental ill-health and after his arrest, he was found unfit to stand trial. He was detained in a secure hospital and at a trial of fact in 2023, he was found to have been responsible for Lilya’s killing. 

In Spring 2025, he was assessed as once again being fit to plead and take part in a trial. During the trial he offered a partial defence – that he was guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. The CPS did not accept his plea and prosecuted the case as murder.

Following a two-week trial at Lincoln Crown Court, Skebas was convicted of murder today.

Marc Thompson from the Crown Prosecution Service said: “The sudden and tragic death of such a young child shook our community. We were determined that the perpetrator of this crime would face the full force of justice for what he did.

“Our case has always been that this was an unspeakable, deliberate act and not, as Skebas has claimed, the result of a mental abnormality.

“This has been a lengthy process for Lilyas’s family and loved ones, as they have been forced to wait for Skebas to be fit to take part in this trial. I would like to pay tribute to their resilience and patience and I hope that seeing justice served will be of some comfort to them. Our thoughts are with them and all who feel Lilya’s loss so keenly.”

Building the case: Prosecuting murder when a defendant claims diminished responsibility

Diminished responsibility is a partial defence to murder, where a defendant pleads guilty to manslaughter instead of murder. It is for the defence to prove, not the prosecution. They must be able to satisfy a jury that the defendant was suffering from an abnormality of mental functioning caused by a recognised condition. They must prove that this substantially impaired their ability to understand what they were doing or form a rational judgement and that this explained their actions.

The evidence that Skebas had killed Lilya was overwhelming. He was caught on CCTV approaching her and launching the fatal attack. CCTV evidence from around the area was crucial to proving that his judgement was not impaired.

The CPS used evidence of Skebas’s actions before and after he killed Lilya to demonstrate his awareness of what he was doing. CCTV evidence showed him circling round the area where the attack took place and waiting for passers-by to be gone before he attacked.

After the attack, evidence showed Skebas running away, going straight to his home. He then altered his appearance, changing his clothes and shaving off his beard. He then contacted family members to try and secure loans to pay for transport out of the country to his native Lithuania.

The prosecution’s case was that in the build up to the attack, Skebas waited until there were no witnesses or anyone to stop him in his tracks. He then had the presence of mind to take steps he thought would avoid detection in changing the way he looked and trying to flee.