Lilia Valutyte: man in court over murder of nine-year-old in Lincolnshire

A 22-year-old man has appeared in court today charged with the murder of a nine-year-old girl in Lincolnshire.

Lilia Valutyte was “stabbed to death in front of her little sister as they played with a hula-hoop in the street” in Boston on Thursday, reported The Sun.

Their mother, Lina Savicke, was said to have been working from a laptop a few metres away watching the girls from the window of a cafe. She was the first person “to rush to her daughter’s aid on the cobbled street”, said the paper.

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“Devastated residents described seeing a discarded toy pram, understood to belong to Lillia's sibling, at the crime scene,” said LBC.

Deividas Skebas, a Lithuanian national, of Thorold Street, Boston, was charged with her murder last night. Two other people who were arrested last week have been released with no further action.

At Lincoln Magistrates' Court today, Skebas was remanded into custody by District Judge Peter Deits, who told him: “The offence you are facing is the most serious offence anyone can face in court.”

Lilia’s mother and her partner, Aurelijus Savickas - both from Lithuania - “have been supported by specialist officers in the wake of the attack”, reported The Telegraph. One family friend called the nine-year-old “a beautiful angel”, who was “quiet and loved dancing”.

Edgars Buncis, whose 12-year-old son Roberts was stabbed to death in the area two years ago, urged Lilia’s family to “be strong”, to “take any help you can get” and to “love those who you have”. “Where are we going, what is wrong with this world, what is wrong with Boston,” he wrote.

The Sun noted that the market town was the “murder capital of England and Wales” in 2016. According to Home Office data, it had the highest number of homicides and attempted homicides per 100,000 people.