A woman who killed 7-year-old Emily Jones on Mother’s Day this year has pleaded guilty to her manslaughter.

During a brief hearing at Manchester Magistrates Court Eltiona Skana, 30, appeared via a video link to plead guilty to the charge of the unlawful killing of little Emily.

She was being held at Rampton high security hospital at the time of the hearing.

Albanian Skana also pleaded not guilty to the charge of murdering the young girl on the 22nd March this year at a park in Bolton. Prosecuting attorney Michael Brady asked the judge, Mr Justice Henshaw, to adjourn the hearing in order for the prosecution lawyers to consider the plea.

The adjournment was granted with the judge saying that a full trial would be scheduled to begin on 23rd November. Emily was stabbed to death in Queen’s Park, Bolton on Mother’s Day while with her parents, who witnessed the horrific attack.

Skana, who lived in Bolton, was arrested a short time later and held under the Mental Health Act. The child’s father, Mark Jones, sat in the public gallery for the short hearing on Friday although her mother, solicitor Sarah Barnes, was not present.

In a statement released by her parents after her death they said that “they are devasted that they will not see their little girl grow up.”

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