A CHILD’S birthday should be a day of celebration but today, on what would have been Emily Jones’ eighth birthday, her parents will be laying flowers on her grave.

The day is one of several unbearable milestones in the months since Sarah Barnes and Mark Jones were robbed of their daughter.

The couple were separated but shared the parenting of Emily, who they described as “the light of our lives”.

Mark says Christmas without Emily was particularly difficult, but would have been worse if the corovavirus regulations had not been in place and the country had been partying.

Emily usually spent Christmas Day with her mother and then Mark would take her to visit his parents in Wales on Boxing Day, where the little girl loved ripping paper from mountains of presents.

“She changed my Christmases. I had never been a Christmasy person before,” said Mark.

"I just loved being a dad and we were like best friends. We had so much fun and it was amazing.

“A child a Christmas makes it magical and then she wasn’t here.

“But we felt a bit lucky because it was lockdown. It would have been 10 times worse if it wasn’t.

“I went to a friend’s in the afternoon and we just talked about good times and it was quite nice just to reminisce about the kids and stuff. That got me through the day really.”

Just weeks earlier Mark and Sarah had sat in Minshull Street Crown Court and listened as the horrific details of what happened to their daughter were outlined to a jury.

Mark says he was surprised when he learned that Eltiona Skana was going to be tried for murder as he was aware that she was mentally ill, but was pleased it went ahead and the full facts of what happened were publicly mentioned.

“All along we knew she [Skana] was ill and deep down we knew she was a nasty piece of work as well and obviously that came to light,” he said.

“So far as the trial was concerned that was good for us because we got to know details which we wouldn’t otherwise have been able to find out, although it was pretty horrific to have to listen to a lot of the stuff, especially witnesses who were there on the day.

“A lot of what they saw was completely different to what I saw, so that was pretty traumatic to listen to, and then realising what she did to my daughter because I didn’t actually know how she had done it.

“I was there, so I saw the horrific injuries, but I didn’t actually quite understand how she had done it - just how brutal it was.

“Myself and Sarah didn’t really want to hear but we had to hear.

“Although this isn’t a well woman, this is a nasty woman as well. Just because she is a paranoid schizophrenic, all paranoid schizophrenics don’t go out and murder children.

“We were glad that this all came out and we were glad that the judge saw the woman that she was. We needed that for our own piece of mind.”

Despite no murder verdict, Mark says prosecuting barrister Michael Brady QC “did Emily proud”.

“There is a good chance this woman is never going to come out and that’s obviously what I was keen to make sure of,” said Mark.

“Myself and Sarah after it, breathed a sigh of relief. We were glad it was over. We all deserved our day in court.”