An attack on a girl who was stabbed in the neck in Bolton was ‘out of the blue’, an inquest has heard.
Emily Jones, a pupil at Markland Hill Primary School, was stabbed by paranoid schizophrenic Eltiona Skana in Queens Park on March 22, 2020.
A few months earlier, Skana spoke to Raj Dangi, a consultant psychiatrist for Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Trust, for the first time.
On the second day of an inquest this week, via a video link from his home in Melbourne, Australia, he described his involvement with the killer, who was convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and was sentenced to a minimum term of 10 years and eight months at a psychiatric hospital on December 8, 2020.
Although Skana was involved in a number of incidents of violence after her arrival from Albania to the UK in 2014, including incidents involving her mother and her neighbour, Dr Dangi said there was no suggestion she was a significant risk to herself or to others at the time of his involvement.
She seemed ‘compliant’ and ‘concordant’ with the medication she was prescribed for ‘paranoid’ and ‘persecutory’ thoughts, he explained.
Dr Dangi suggested it was predictable for someone to experience a relapse, although it was not predictable for someone to experience a relapse of this severity.
He said: “It baffles me. I’m not able to understand why someone would behave in such a horrendous way towards a little girl.
“There was nothing to indicate she was psychotic. It was out of the blue.”
Asked by the coroner if he would have done anything differently, he said no.
He said: “I don’t think I would have done anything differently. I stand by what I have done.”
Victoria Fagan, the care coordinator responsible for Skana in the community, agreed with the assessment of Dr Dangi.
Ms Fagan said if there was any suggestion of a significant risk to herself or others she would have taken action on it.
She said: “She was a young woman looking forward to the future.
“Of all the patients on my caseload I was most shocked it was her.”
The inquest before senior coroner Timothy Brennand continues this week and into next week.
This article was written by Jack Tooth. To contact him, email jack.tooth@newsquest.co.uk or follow @JTRTooth on Twitter.
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