Mum who organised ex-husband’s murder with new lover is jailed

A mum who organised her ex-husband’s murder with her new lover has been jailed for 26 years.

Asta Juskauskiene, 35, hatched a plan with Mantas Kvedaras, 25, to kill her former partner 42-year-old Giedrius Juskauskas.

Kvedaras stabbed Mr Juskauskas to death in an alleyway in Newham, east London, on June 17, 2019.

A post-mortem examination established the victim, who was pronounced dead at the scene, had at least 35 separate stab wounds to his body, chest and neck.

Some of his bones had been damaged which suggested severe force had been used.

Appearing at the Kingston Crown Court on Friday, Mr Juskauskas’ ex-wife Juskauskiene, from south-west London, was sentenced to 24 years for murder, and two years for perverting the court of justice to run concurrently.

Her younger lover, Mantas Kvedaras, 25, was also sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for murder.

Mr Juskauskas, 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.

This was as he served a prison sentence in Lithuania for the sexual assault of a teenager.

Police quickly determined that Mr Juskauskas’ murder was likely to be the result of a targeted attack.

It later emerged 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.

Care worker Juskauskiene consistently lied to police during an interview and deleted potentially incriminating text messages from her phone.

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

Kvedaras pleaded guilty to Mr Juskauskas’ murder 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, Mr Juskauskas’ mother said: “I cannot find the words, if there are any to explain, the heartbreaking and devastating concoction of feelings that conjured inside me when I registered that I was never going to see my son again…”

Detective Chief Inspector Laurence Smith, added: “This was a calculated, merciless attack and I cannot begin to imagine how frightened Giedrius must have been in his last moments.”