'Daddy, I want to go to mum' - Parents of Emily Jones still hunt for answers three years on from schoolgirl's killing
02.05.2023 - 18:17
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
The parents of a schoolgirl who was killed in a horrific attack in a park on Mother's Day have demanded answers as an inquest into her death gets under way.
Emily Jones, 7, was stabbed to death as she rode through Queens Park in Bolton on her scooter on March 22, 2020. Eltiona Skana, then 30, slit the little girl's throat with a craft knife she had bought from a pound shop earlier that day.
More than three years on from the Mother's Day killing, an inquest into Emily's death has started at Bolton Coroner's Court. On its opening day today (Tuesday), her parents recalled the horrifying events of the day their daughter was killed.
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Mark Jones, Emily's father, said he had taken his daughter to the park so she could ride her scooter and meet her mother, Sarah Barnes, who was out jogging. Upon seeing her mother, Emily - a pupil at Markland Hill Primary School - said: "Daddy, daddy, I want to go to mum."
As Emily rode off on her scooter, the inquest heard that she was grabbed by Skana - a complete stranger who had pounced from a nearby bench. Mr Jones said he heard his daughter crying and initially assumed she had fallen from her scooter.
But as he approached Emily, he noticed she was bleeding from her neck.
Tony Canty, an eyewitness who was walking in the park at the time, chased after Skana and pinned her to the ground. He said she was shouting 'she tried to kill me', which the inquest heard was a 'delusional reference to Emily'.
Emily was taken to hospital, where she later died from her injuries. Skana, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, was arrested by police that same day.
She was later convicted of