Central NewsA woman has been sentenced to life in prison after she made her two admirers fight to the death over her.
Asta Juskauskiene, 35, left her partner Giedruis Juskauskas and started seeing 25-year-old Mantas Kvedaras after meeting him online.
When both men claimed Juskauskiene as their own, she proposed a ‘fight to the death’ duel in an alleyway in Stratford, east London.
Central NewsDuring the fight, Kvedaras (pictured below) killed Juskauskas after stabbing him 35 times in the body and neck.
He and Juskauskiene celebrated the following day by ordering pizza, the court heard.
Kvedaras, who had previously spent time in prison in Lithuania, was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to murder.
Mum-of-three Asta Juskauskiene was also jailed for life after being convicted of conspiracy to murder and perverting the course of justice after a five-week trial at Kingston Crown Court.
Central NewsProsecutor Hugh Davies said:
Kvederas had a reputation for violence in prison.
Kvederas also told her he ‘assaulted a lot of people, also stabbed a few, and shot at someone too’.
Mr Davies also said Juskauskiene had discussed the purpose of the two men’s meeting with her friend Jurgita Sulciene:
That purpose was for the men to settle the issue in relation to the defendant with violence – in effect a latter-day medieval duel.
Despite being divorced from Juskauskas, the couple still frequently saw one another as they had a daughter together. Asta continued a sexual relationship with her ex-husband, despite also seeing Kvederas.
Central NewsDavies said:
[Juskauskas] had not wanted the divorce. He was providing financial support for his daughter and maintaining a sexual relationship with the defendant.
In their different ways each man felt that they had claims over Asta Juskauskiene. The situation was inevitably going to come to a head. It did come to a head in Whalebone Lane on that Monday morning.
Giedrius Juskauskas and Mantas Kvedaras had obviously met there by arrangement rather than by chance: neither was anywhere near where they lived, and telephone records demonstrate there was repeated communication between them during the day of Sunday 16 June as they travelled from different locations to the scene.
Davies also said Juskauskiene knew in advance that Kvedaras intended to use serious violence against Juskauskas, and actively encouraged him to do so.
Juskauskas was found bleeding to death in Whalebone Lane, Stratford at 12.30am on June 17.
Central NewsJuskauskiene stood expressionless in the dock as Judge Peter Lodder jailed her for life.
Judge Lodder said:
Mr Juskauskas was the father of Juskauskiene’s five-year-old daughter. But you two regarded him as an unwelcome irritation to your relationship and so you resolved to get rid of him.
It was your joint plan that he would be seen as the victim of a drug deal that had gone wrong.
He added:
Mr Juskauskas had continued to support you and all of your children after divorce, he was described by your eldest daughter as ‘a good man to you. He always loved you. He took care of you’.
Bizarrely, and pathetically in retrospect, he still loved you.
It is clear to me that you, Asta Juskauskiene, developed a fascination with violent and dangerous men.
Kvedaras has been sentenced to a minimum of 22 years, while Juskauskiene has been sentenced to a minimum of 24 years.
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Niamh Shackleton is a pint sized person and journalist at UNILAD. After studying Multimedia Journalism at the University of Salford, she did a year at Caters News Agency as a features writer in Birmingham before deciding that Manchester is (arguably) one of the best places in the world, and therefore moved back up north. She’s also UNILAD’s unofficial crazy animal lady.