A 35-year-old mother of three was on trial this week for allegedly
pushing her ex-husband and her new boyfriend – both of whom desperately
wanted to be with her – into fighting for her hand in “a latter-day
medieval duel”.
Asta Juskauskiene, a care worker living in London, UK, has been
accused of being a “manipulative and controlling figure” who pushed two
men fighting for her affection to settle their differences through
violence. A court recently heard that the woman’s ex-husband,
42-year-old Giedruis Juskauskas, was found bleeding in the streets and
was later pronounced dead as a result of suffering multiple stab wounds
in a bloody street brawl with Juskauskiene’s new boyfriend, a
25-year-old ex con named Mantas Kvedaras. The Lithuanian national
admitted to the killing, but the prosecution says they have ample
evidence that he and Giedruis were egged on by their common
love-interest.
According to prosecutors, Asta Juskauskiene divorced her Giedruis,
against his wishes, six months before his brutal killing. They had a
five-year-old daughter together and were reportedly still intimate even
after the divorce, so he was a constant presence at her home. The man
also provided financial support for their daughter and according to
prosecutors he still claimed Asta as his own. His ex-wife had other
plans, though.
Court documents show that shortly after divorcing her husband, the
35-year-old care worker became romantically involved with a Lithuanian
man named Andrius Semionovas, who she actually married on 18 February
2019, thinking that he would be able to join her in London, after his
release from prison. Their relationship ended when Semionovas stopped
and deported when he tried to enter the UK. But through him, she met
another inmate, Mantas Kvedaras.
Asta reportedly traveled to Stockholm to meet Mantas in person after
conversing with him over the internet (chat records show that their
relationship was sexual in nature). Two weeks later, Mantas joined her
in London, and inevitably butted heads with her ex-husband.
“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,” Prosecutor
Hugh Davies said during the trial.
The fatal confrontation between the two men took place just days
after Mantas’ arrival in the British capital. Both he and Giedruis were
far away from their homes, and phone records show that they had been in
touch throughout the day prior to their brawl a brick-lined alleyway in
the neighborhood of Stratford. This, the prosecution suggests, proves
that the duel was premeditated and that the woman they were fighting
over was also to blame.
Asta reportedly told a close friend that the two men were going to
battle to decide who would win her affections, and that she had told
Mantas Kvedaras to “use serious violence” against her ex-husband. He
listened and stabbed his rival 35 times.
“I had warned her that it would be ‘dangerous’ if Giedrius were to
come to the house and meet either Andrius or Mantas,” the friend in whom
Juskauskiene confided wrote in a police statement. “She said they would
fight, I knew Geidrius was a very jealous person.”
After the murder, Mantas Kvedaras was harboured by Asta in her home,
but was allegedly apprehended by police and admitted to the killing of
Giedruis Juskauskas. His love interest allegedly selectively deleted
text messages from her mobile telephones before they were seized by
police, and lied multiple times during questioning.
Juskauskiene, from Dartford, Kent, denies conspiracy to murder and perverting the course of justice.
