Evil killer should be tortured to death.. just like he did to Jolanta

THE devastated grandmother of butchered Jolanta Bledaite insists there is only one punishment suitable for the fiend who murdered her - DEATH.

Trembling with emotion, frail Albina Sapalaite called for evil Aleksandras Skirda to face the same agonising fate he forced her granddaughter to endure.

Speaking at her home in Alytus, Lithuania, the 80-year-old sobbed: "I want that man to suffer just as he made our Jolanta suffer.

"He is an animal who does not deserve to live.

"Jolanta died in agony and terror - I want him to feel exactly the same."

At the High Court in Edinburgh this week Skirda, 19, admitted attacking Jolanta at her flat in Brechin.

He beat her and tortured her with a knife as he demanded her PIN number so he could steal her £1,400 savings.

He smothered her before cutting up her mutilated body.

It's expected the fiend will be sentenced to life for the brutal slaying.

But Albina revealed she is tormented by thoughts of him enjoying an easy life in a cushy Scots jail.

The weeping gran added: "I understand conditions in Scottish jails mean he will be given meals, education, television and computer games.

"That is not the idea I have of punishment for this crime.

"His life in jail will be better than we have here in Lithuania.

"It will be better than the life Jolanta had before she went to Scotland to try and make things better for herself.

"Skirda is a young man. Even if he serves 25 years, he would still be able to build a life when he is released.

"There is not a death sentence in Scotland but that is exactly what he should get for what he did to Jolanta."

Albina is also mourning Jolanta's 60-year-old dad Sarunas Bleda who died on Monday - just a day before Skirda confessed his sickening crime.

And the frail pensioner told how her shattered family has struggled to come to terms with the double tragedy.

Blinking back tears, she said: "Our Jolanta was such a gentle girl but she died in agony. She had a terrible death.

"That was very difficult for her father. He wept about the way she was taken from us.

"He was a very proud man who was desperate to see the man who did this to his little girl brought to justice.

"It is so tragic that he couldn't hang on any longer - that he died just one day before we got some justice for Jolanta's death.

Destroyed

"He went to his grave not knowing if anyone would be punished for this terrible crime. That has been very hard on all of the family.

"Nothing can bring her back and nothing will make the pain go away.

"Our family will have to live with that. Her death destroyed her father who is now also gone. It has all been too much for us to manage."

Jolanta came to Scotland to find work in September 2006.

The kind-hearted 35-year-old needed money to help pay for her father's cancer treatment.

She found a job in a potato factory in Angus and began saving every penny she could to send home.

But on March 29, in a cold and calculated attack, twisted Skirda pounced on her in her own flat.

The monster bound her legs, hands and arms, before taping her mouth and nose.

He then beat her on the head and body and repeatedly stabbed her with a knife.

Skirda held struggling Jolanta down by her legs as he suffocated her. The sicko then cut off her hands and head, stuffing them into bags before making a chilling 15-mile bus journey to the harbour at Arbroath.

Once there, he hurled the bags into the water and coolly returned home.

The next day, the monster crammed the rest of her remains into a suitcase and dumped that in the same spot.

The brute then went on a spending spree with Jolanta's hard-earned cash.

Two sisters, aged just eight and 11, found Jolanta's head on April 1 as they played on a nearby beach.

Skirda was arrested, along with another man, just days later.

But Albina, who lives in grinding poverty in a two room shack in Alytus, admitted she is haunted by the idea that one day he will walk free.

She added: "People close to Skirda here in our town are saying that he won't be in jail for too long, that he will be home in a matter of years. I will not be able to manage if that is the case, that man has to be properly punished for what he has taken from us."

Jolanta was buried beside her great-gran on the banks of the River Nemunas, near her hometown.

We arranged for a picture of her father to be sealed in her coffin - his final wish.

Proud Sarunas, who battled intestinal cancer for eight years, desperately clung to life to see his beloved daughter's body returned home.

In April, we took charity worker Sue Smith to comfort the family in Lithuania. The 44-year-old brought them cash raised by Scots to help pay for Jolanta's funeral.

Last night, Sue - who won our Bighearted Scot of the Year award in 2006 after setting up an appeal in aid of another murdered migrant worker in Arbroath - said: "I feel so sad that Sarunas died the night before Skirda pleaded guilty to murdering Jolanta.

"I know he was broken-hearted at her murder. In the end, it was all too much for him to bear.

"I spoke with him by phone regularly and he wanted to stay alive so he could see the person who murdered Jolanta face proper punishment.

"I also think, in his heart, he couldn't bear to hear all the details of her murder and how much she had suffered.

"But I feel very privileged to have met Sarunas, even though the circumstances were tragic.

"I just hope he is now at peace with his daughter."

Former soldier Sarunas was buried alongside Jolanta on Wednesday.

Skirda will be sentenced after he gives evidence at the trial of co-accused Vitas Plytnykas, 40. He denies murder.

The trial is set to take place at the High Court in Edinburgh on February 2.

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