Woman and her lover jailed for murdering her ex-husband in Stratford

Giedrius Juskauskas was stabbed to death in Stratford. Picture: Met Police (Image: Met Police)

Giedrius Juskauskas, 42, was stabbed to death in a Stratford alleyway in June 2019.

Appearing at the Old Bailey on Friday, February 7, his 35-year-old ex-wife Asta Juskauskiene, of Iron Mill Lane, Crayford was sentenced to 24 years for murder, and two years for perverting the court of justice, to run concurrently.

Her lover, Mantas Kvedaras, 25, of no fixed abode was jailed for 22 years.

The attack took place on June 17, 2019 in Whalebone Lane. Emergency services were called after a witness found Giedrius lying on the floor bleeding from the neck, but still breathing.

Medics from London Ambulance Service and Met officers had arrived at the scene within six minutes of the 999 call being made, and they were joined a short time later by a team from London's Air Ambulance. Despite their efforts, Giedrius died at the scene.

A post-mortem examination established that Giedrius had at least 35 separate stab wounds to his body, chest and neck. Some of his bones had been damaged which suggested that severe force had been used by the attacker, later identified as Kvedaras.

Giedrius, a Lithuanian national who had been living in London for around a decade, was continuing a physical relationship with Juskauskiene with whom he had a child - despite their divorce in December 2018.

Kvedaras had come to the UK five days before the murder to stay with Juskauskiene, after they began a relationship over social media while he was serving a prison sentence in Lithuania for the sexual assault of a teenager.

Police quickly determined that Giedrius's murder was likely to be the result of a targeted attack. It transpired that Juskauskiene had been in contact with both her ex-husband and Kvedaras in the hours leading to the murder and was key to orchestrating the fatal meeting.

In the days afterwards, Juskauskiene arranged the removal of personal documents of Kvedaras's from her home, where he continued to stay before his arrest.

Juskauskiene, a care worker whose work had been praised by her employer, consistently lied to police during interview and deleted potentially incriminating text messages from her phone.

The couple were both arrested on June 19 and charged with murder the following day.

Kvedaras pleaded guilty to Giedrius's murder at the Old Bailey on October 17.

Juskauskiene was found guilty of murder and perverting the course of justice on January 9 at Kingston Crown Court.

In a statement read out to the court, Giedrius's family spoke of the devastation that they have suffered following his death.

His mother said: "I cannot find the words, if there are any to explain, the heart-breaking and devastating concoction of feelings that conjured inside me when I registered that I was never going to see my son again, that he would never walk through my front door, he would never evoke in me a sense of contentment and completion, he would never have the chance to laugh again, he would never be living, he would never be."

His sister said: "The loss of my brother, my parent's son, my children's uncle and his children's father has created a colossal and irreparable hole in all our lives."

Speaking after the sentencing, Det Chief Insp Laurence Smith from Specialist Crime said: "This was a calculated, merciless attack and I cannot begin to imagine how frightened Giedrius must have been in his last moments.

"While I know that we can never take away Giedrius's family's pain at losing him, I hope that they find some small comfort in the fact that the justice they so deserve has come to pass and this pair are paying the price for their wicked actions."