A MAN who killed a woman, cut up her body and dumped it at sea off the coast of Scotland has been sentenced to life imprisonment in his Lithuanian homeland.
But Vitas Plytnykas could be released from prison three years earlier than the 28-year minimum jail term laid down by the High Court in Edinburgh for the murder of Jolanta Bledaite.
A court in Vilnius decided to uphold the life sentence handed down to Plytnykas at the Scottish court in 2009.
But it has emerged that under Lithuanian law, the 46-year-old could be considered for parole after serving 25 years, rather than the 28-year minimum.
Plytnykas, and accomplice Aleksandras Skirda, murdered fellow countrywoman Ms Bledaite at her flat in Brechin.
They then cut up her body and dumped it in the sea at Arbroath.
Ruth Leslie Melville, who was the region's provost at the time of the murder, said the result was "what she had feared most".
The murder was said to have been committed as part of a wider plot to steal £1,400 from Ms Bledaite's bank account.
The men were caught after Ms Bledaite's head and hands washed up on an Arbroath beach, and were found by two children.
Plytnykas was deported in February after a request to return to his homeland.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article