Emily Jones: How a Mother's Day trip to the park turned into every parent's worst nightmare

This year the day was bright and sunny, but for one family, a day which started with the promise of joy and excitement, ended in grief and tragedy with a crime which shocked Bolton and the world.

Little Emily Jones, a seven-year-old child with a huge smile and heart to match, was brutally killed by a complete stranger in front of her doting father as she innocently played in the sunshine of Queens Park.

The Bolton-born Markland Hill Primary School pupil was the only child of credit manager Mark Jones and solicitor Sarah Barnes.

Although Mark and Sarah were no longer together they remained on good terms and shared parenting of their beloved daughter. Emily would spend each Sunday with her dad and March 22 was no exception. At 9am Sarah dropped Emily off at her father’s house and arranged to meet them later in Queens Park, Heaton, where she planned to go running.

Emily loved going to the park, with a children’s play area and café, using the smooth, undulating pathways to do lap after lap on her scooter, safely away from busy roads.

Just after 2pm, Mark parked his car near the park’s Chorley New Road entrance. The pair enjoyed the next few minutes as they walked and scooted around the sloping paths of the park, totally oblivious of the danger which awaited.

After doing several laps of the upper parts of the park, Mark and Emily walked down some steps when the little girl spotted her mother running in the distance.

“Mum, mum,” she shouted, but Sarah could not hear her because she was wearing earphones and was too far away.

“Daddy, daddy, I want to go to mum,” Emily told her dad, seeking his approval to go on ahead and catch up with her mother.

“Of course,” Mark replied and off Emily scooted.

Two hundred yards ahead Mark could see a lone figure sat on a bench by the path, but the park was busy with people enjoying a last trip out before the coronavirus lockdown which was to come into force the following day, and did not pay them much attention.

Suddenly, as Emily passed the bench on her scooter, the figure, wearing a hooded top, stood up, swiftly grabbed the child and, with a single movement, slashed her throat before pushing the little girl away and running off.

Onlookers were so shocked that they did not initially realise what had happened and, not seeing the knife in the attacker’s hand, thought the woman may be the child’s mother roughly chastising her or someone who had assaulted her – they did not comprehend, at first, the full horror of what they had witnessed.

Emily uttered no sound as she fell to the ground, bleeding profusely from her wound and Mark, who was some distance behind and whose view was partially obscured by a couple who were out walking, at first thought his daughter had fallen off her scooter and the woman standing over her was helping her up.

It was only when he heard a woman shout “she’s been stabbed” that he realised the hooded figure, who was now running away, had something in her right hand – the knife which she had used to kill Emily.

Whilst brave onlooker Tony Canty raced after the woman, later identified as paranoid schizophrenic Eltiona Skana, who had a history of violence, Mark rushed to his daughter and sat on the ground, cradling her from behind on his lap, trying to comfort her and shouting for help.

Mark was described as “frantic”, not knowing what to do to help Emily, who was quiet and not moving. A member of the public took off his shirt and handed it to Mark so he could try and stem the blood then someone, who Mark believes was a trained nurse, took over administering first aid.

Several people called the emergency services and within minutes paramedics were on the scene.

First to arrive was paramedic Matthew Hooper, who said that, as he approached Emily and her father, he could see that she was unconscious and bleeding heavily.

“I didn’t know at that point she had been stabbed but I knew it was serious,” he said.

Distraught Mark was reluctant to let go of his daughter and held her hand while Mr Hooper administered adrenalin and performed CPR on Emily, who had gone into cardiac arrest.

Mark phoned Sarah, who had been unaware of the tragedy unfolding in the park and she rushed to her daughter while medics tried to save her.

Whilst police cleared the park of the public, an air ambulance was scrambled and flew Emily to Salford Royal Hospital where doctors had been alerted and were waiting.

The helicopter landed at 3.27pm and staff spent the next half an hour trying to restart her heart. But the little girl’s injuries were too severe and their efforts were in vain.

They stopped treatment and at 3.56pm, less than two hours after Emily and her dad had entered Queens Park to enjoy an afternoon of fun together, she was dead.

In a tribute issued by her parents they described her as “the light of our lives”.

They added: “She was always full of joy, love and laughter. Emily had such a cheeky smile and was beautiful inside and out. She had a heart as big as her smile.

“Emily was never happier than when she was spending time with her family and friends, she was our own little social butterfly. Emily had a passion for the outdoors and loved to play any sport, even when she was wearing her pink sparkly dresses!!

“We are beyond devastated that this random act of violence means that we will never get to see our beautiful little girl grow up into the wonderful young lady she was showing such promise of becoming.

“It is truly heart breaking to wake up to a world without Emily in it and we cannot comprehend why this has happened.