Emily Jones killer was known by NHS to be a significant danger yet failed to tell Community Health team

Medical staff knew that a mentally ill Albanian woman who cut a girl’s throat on Mother’s Day was a threat to children  but those monitoring her in the community were unaware of the danger, a damning report reveals.

 

A Mail on Sunday investigation exposes a catalogue of failures that meant killer Eltiona Skana was free to roam the streets despite a shocking history of violence and her refusal to take anti-psychotic medication.

 

Skana, 30, a paranoid schizophrenic who entered the UK illegally, grabbed seven-year-old Emily Jones as she rode past her on a scooter in a park in Bolton and slashed her throat with a craft knife. She died shortly afterwards.

This newspaper has obtained an internal NHS report which details a string of blunders and missed opportunities by Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, which was responsible for Skana’s care. 

The report, marked ‘strictly confidential’, reveals:

• Three years before Emily’s brutal death, Skana had threatened a 13-year-old girl while possibly armed with a knife – but this disturbing incident was not included in her risk assessment;
• Skana was twice detained in psychiatric hospitals before killing Emily, but repeatedly escaped; 
• Her mental state was assessed just once in the three months before she killed Emily; 
• Skana had a long history of violence, including wielding a knife and a brutal attack on her mother;
• Clinicians ‘reluctantly’ bowed to her demands and changed her medication to less effective drugs – despite concerns that her condition would deteriorate;
• Her sister warned staff ‘early on in her illness’ that Skana refused to take her anti-psychotic tablets. A month’s supply of unused medication was found at Skana’s flat after she killed Emily. 

Skana’s prosecution for murder was dropped on Friday after prosecutors accepted there was no realistic prospect of a conviction.

She pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and will be sentenced on Tuesday.

Emily’s grieving father, Mark, said Skana was a ‘ticking time bomb’ who should be locked up for the rest of her life. ‘I think she is vile,’ he said. ‘How dare she take my child away from me.

‘The coward murdered my child. I personally think she is a threat to the public and I want her to spend all her days in prison.’

Despite cataloguing so many failings, the serious incident review commissioned by the trust after Emily’s killing clears its staff of any blame. 

‘In our opinion, unfortunately the incident could not have been predicted or prevented. E S [Eltiona Skana] was managed appropriately given the clinical findings,’ the report, written by a doctor and two nurses, states.

Mr Jones demanded that the trust apologise for its failings and said health bosses who oversaw Skana’s care should be sacked. ‘I want some senior heads to roll. I don’t like the fact that they are hiding in their ivory towers. I hope they can’t sleep, like I can’t.’

Skana was first referred to mental health staff in Manchester just three months after arriving in the UK in 2014 and was assessed as having psychotic ideas, including fears her neighbours were planning to harm her by using electricity.

Police discovered Skana had disconnected the electricity to the property’s boiler, removed light bulbs and thrown away her TV, which she claimed was transmitting her neighbours’ voices. 

The court heard how she was detained in hospital again but escaped and turned up at a friend’s house, asking to see her friend’s 13-year-old daughter for no apparent reason ‘while possibly armed with a knife’.

When asked by her friend about her short haircut, she replied that she ‘cut her hair off, rather than cutting off other people’s heads’.

 

Many on social media have asked why as of yet no pictures of Eltiona Skana have yet been released and why there has been little or no discussion around this savage murder by mainstream political figures.