Murder suspect from Scunthorpe 'seen with hands covered in blood' - court told

A murder suspect from Scunthorpe accused of stabbing and strangling another man before burying him under leaves near Humberside Airport was seen with his hands “covered in blood”, a court heard.

He had allegedly murdered the man over a trivial dispute about a stolen satellite navigation system before dumping his body in dense woodland, the court was told.

Lithuanian man Aleksandras Aleksiunas, 26, of Burke Street, Scunthorpe, denies murdering chicken factory worker Arvydas Skrinkas at Cottager’s Dale Wood, Limber, near Kirmington, between December 24 and January 10.

He and Lithuanian co-defendant Arundas Gervelis, 24, of Dale Street, Scunthorpe, deny falsely imprisoning Mr Skrinkas and his girlfriend, Agne Jozenaite, on December 24 and falsely imprisoning Miss Jozenaite on December 25.

The prosecution at Hull Crown Court claims Aleksiunas stabbed Mr Skrinkas, causing a 12cm-deep shoulder wound and other wounds, and strangled him with a ligature after driving him to the remote wooded area.

He is said to have hidden his own blood-splattered jacket, a door key to his mother’s home and the victim’s sandals, also under piles of leaves.

Aleksiunas is said to have been furious that a satellite navigation system had gone missing from a car and blamed Lithuanian Mr Skrinkas, 25, of Sheffield Street, Scunthorpe, and his girlfriend, Miss Jozenaite, 23, for the theft.

Lithuanian-born Miss Jozenaite told the court that she and Mr Skrinkas both worked at the time in a chicken factory in the Scunthorpe area.

She said Aleksiunas and Gervelis arrived outside their home in a car on December 24.

“They told us to get into the car and we got in the car,” she said.

Aleksiunas asked them if they had “spades for digging” because he thought she had taken the sat nav and that Mr Skrinkas had hidden it.

“They wanted to bury us,” said Miss Jozenaite.

She claimed that Aleksiunas told them “let’s go to the forest” and she thought the men would bury them.

Miss Jozenaite claimed it was a “total nonsense” that she and her boyfriend had sold the sat nav to a Cash Converters shop in Scunthorpe. Aleksiunas claimed he bought it back for £20.

“We stopped somewhere in the woods,” she said.

Aleksiunas later went to his mother’s Scunthorpe home and put a spade in the car boot. He showed them a knife that was under his T-shirt.

“I was afraid very much,” she Miss Jozenaite. “Gervelis didn’t allow us to leave the car.”

She said she was allowed to get out of the car but it was later driven off with Mr Skrinkas still in the back.

Miss Jozenaite said she telephoned Aleksiunas to ask where her boyfriend was. When she later saw Aleksiunas, he had cuts on his hands.

“His hands were covered in blood,” she claimed. Aleksiunas also had blood on his trousers.

“I started crying,” she said.

Aleksiunas opened the boot and she saw the knife.

“Aleksiunas told me that he had buried somebody,” she claimed.

On Christmas Day, Miss Jozenaite was told to get into a car with four men, including Aleksiunas, if she wanted to see her boyfriend alive.

She gave money to Aleksiunas for petrol and he allegedly told her he had stabbed Mr Skrinkas and left him near a Leeds hospital. She thought she would be taken to that hospital by the men.

The continuing trial, listed for up to three weeks, is being heard before retired High Court judge Sir Geoffrey Grigson and a jury of seven men and five women.