Asta Juskauskiene (left) arranged a fight to the death between admirers Giedruis Juskauskas (inset) and Mantas Kvedaras (right) (Picture: Central News)

A manipulative mother who orchestrated a ‘medieval duel’ to the death between her two admirers to see who would win her hand has been jailed for life.

Asta Juskauskiene, 35, left husband Giedruis Juskauskas for Mantas Kvedaras, after meeting the 25-year-old online following his release from a Lithuanian prison for rape.

The care worker ended the relationship with Mr Juskauskas, 42, who continued to provide financial support for their daughter.

But Kingston Crown Court heard both men claimed Juskauskiene as their own and she decided they should settle the argument in an alleyway in Stratford, east London, in the early hours of June 17 last year.


The court heard Juskauskiene ‘developed a fascination with violent and dangerous men’ (Picture: Central News)

In a witness statement, one of Juskauskiene’s friends told police she said ‘she wanted the two men to have a fight for her and whoever won would stay with her.’



Prosecutor Hugh Davies QC said: ‘She suggested meeting in a tunnel where drugs are being sold, and said were anything to happen everybody would think it was due to drugs.’

He told jurors during the trial that what did take place inside ‘was brutal as it was immediate’.

Drunk and unarmed, the court heard Mr Juskauskas was slaughtered by Kvedaras within a matter of minutes.

He suffered 35 stab wounds in all – mostly to his neck – with one passing right the way through and 11 ‘consistent with rapid infliction to a defenceless person on their back’.

The knifeman later took Juskauskiene out for pizza to celebrate.

Mr Davies said: ‘In this latter day medieval duel the participants were playing by different rules and with markedly different capacities for violence.

‘Juskauskas was heavily intoxicated. Unlike Kvedaras he had no history of using serious violence. He was wholly unarmed.’

The prosecutor said the younger man ‘had a reputation for violence in prison’ and had bragged of having ‘assaulted a lot of people, also stabbed a few, and shot at someone too’.

Jurors heard he was ‘entirely smitten’ with Juskauskiene and considered the mother-of-three ‘a goddess’ while she had ‘developed a fascination with violent and dangerous men’.

Kvedaras inflicted 35 knife wounds during the fatal attack (Picture: Central News)

Jurors heard Juskauskas stood no chance (Picture: Central News)

Jailing her, Judge Peter Lodder QC said she ‘enjoyed’ warnings about how menacing Kvedaras was.

Jurors heard she told a pal: ‘I think I will play until I get into trouble. I probably like the risks, dangers.’

The judge added: ‘The cruel truth is that you were manipulating your admirers.

‘You allowed Mr Juskauskas to think you might go back to him while simultaneously playing him off against Kvedaras.’

Juskauskiene, from Crayford, southeast London, remained emotionless as she would spend at least 24 years behind bars.

Kvedaras, of no fixed address, was also jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum term of 22-and-a-half years after his barrister Tyrone Smith QC said ‘the person who inflicts the fatal blow is not always the most culpable’.

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