A jury has found that a mentally-ill man did kill a nine-year-old girl by stabbing her in the heart as she played with her sister outside the shop where her mum worked.
Deividas Skebas told detectives "I grabbed the knife and I stabbed her" before he was charged with murdering Lilia Valutyte in Boston, Lincolnshire, last July.
But, the 23-year-old was found to be unfit to plead or face trial due to his mental health. Instead, he was the subject of a trial of the facts at Lincoln Crown Court but played no part in proceedings.
The jury could not deliver a verdict of guilty or not guilty of murder, due to a trial of the facts not deciding whether Skebas intended to kill, but must instead make a determination as to whether he physically committed the act of killing.
Giving the jury of six men and six women final legal directions, Mrs Justice McGowan DBE said: "You have to decide whether you are sure that Deividas Skebas killed Lilia Valutyte.
"The prosecution makes the allegation and they must prove it so that you are sure. Put any emotion out of your decision-making. This is a desperately sad case, but you must try it on the evidence, and not on any emotion you may feel.
"Please try to reach a decision on which all 12 of you agree. The fundamental question is, is that Deividas Skebas on the CCTV footage and are we sure that he killed Lilia Valutyte? You are simply being asked to let us know whether you are sure or not that Deividas Skebas is the man seen on CCTV, who undoubtedly is the man who killed Lilia. Concentrate on that. Is that him? Are you sure? Take as much time as you need to reach your decision."
A trial of facts - also known as a finding of fact, trial of the act, or trial of the issue - is not to decide whether someone intended to commit an act or question a defendant's state of mind but to determine whether they physically did it.
While a defendant cannot be criminally convicted, the burden of proof for a jury remains beyond all reasonable doubt.
On the second day of proceedings on Tuesday, the Crown's KC, Christopher Donnellan, read the court a transcript of Skebas's interview with police following his arrest.
In the interview, Skebas admitted: "I grabbed the knife and I stabbed her."
The court previously saw CCTV of a man alleged to be Skebas pacing around Boston town centre on the evening of July 28 last year, having been seen buying a paring knife in the town's Wilko store two days earlier. At around 6.15pm, the man was seen running towards Lilia, who was playing with a hula-hoop outside a shop where her mother worked.
He stabbed her once and ran away, with Lilia dying at 7.11pm after the blade pierced her heart. The knife was later recovered "tucked behind a radiator" when police searched Skebas's property, two days later. A blood-stained grey Calvin Klein T-shirt was also found, with DNA from the blood matching that of Lilia.
Speaking on Monday, Mr Donnellan said: "The prosecution case is that he unlawfully killed her with that single stab wound to the chest. You are only deciding whether he did it. You don't have to decide about his intention or indeed about his mental state."
If Skebas, a Lithuanian national, is found responsible for Lilia's death, the only sentence the court can pass is a hospital order.
He could stand in a conventional trial in future if his mental health improves.
The jury took just 15 minutes of deliberation to determine that Skebas killed Lilia.
Handing down the indefinite hospital order - the only sentence the court could pass - Mrs Justice McGowan DBE said: “Given the fact that he has been found to have killed a child, I am of the opinion that the only appropriate way to deal with the case is to make an order under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act 1983.
“Therefore I make an order that he be readmitted to and detained at Rampton Hospital. It is necessary to protect the public from serious harm and it is not possible to say how long that will be, so, accordingly I order that he be subject to special restrictions under Section 41 of the Mental Health Act 1983.
“Accordingly, I make a hospital order without restriction of time.”
