Murderer blames victim in letter to local newspaper

A murderer who dumped a woman’s head in the sea has written a letter from prison, blaming the victim for her own death.

Lithunanian Vitas Plytnykas, 41, who denies involvement in the torture, killing and mutilation of Jolanta Bledaite, 35. Picture: Ian Rutherford

Lithuanians Vitas Plytnykas and Aleksandras Skirda murdered Angus farm worker Jolanta Bledaite in 2008 in a botched attempt to steal her savings.

The pair suffocated the 35-year-old, also from Lithuania, with a pillow before cutting off her hands and head in the bathroom of her own flat and dumping her remains in the sea.

Jolanta’s head and hands were found by children playing on Arbroath beach, sparking a murder investigation that put Plytnykas and Skirda behind bars for life.

At his trial at the High Court in Edinburgh in 2009, Plytnykas denied the charges and claimed he was elsewhere, whilst Skirda admitted to his part in the crime and gave evidence against Plytnykas.

Now 48-year-old Plytnykas has written a 14-page letter from behind bars, blaming Jolanta for her own death and calling her “the guiltiest person in all this situation.”

Plytnykas sent the rambling letter – along with a Christmas card – to a Scottish local newspaper from his cell in Lithuania, where he has been sent to serve out his sentence.

Written in Lithuanian, the letter claims “Jolanta is the guiltiest person in all this situation”, adding “because of Jolanta’s fault now I will stay all my life in prison.”

Plytnykas doesn’t deny killing Jolanta in the letter, but claims that the life sentence he was given is “too much.”

He goes on: “Nobody planned to kill and rob her at all. This was never a planned crime.

“This was lies that Aleksandras Skirda said. He blamed me in all things that he made and even in all things that never happened.

“He said his version of the crime but his thoughts are not the real facts. He said that most of the things were done by me.

“Aleksandras never even saw the death of Jolanta. Because of Skirda’s lies and because your police refused to help me I never appealed the verdict of the court.

“I never even thought that the court would believe in all these lies that Skirda said. For court the most important goal was to put someone into the jail and show to the society that monsters will now serve in the jail till they die.”

Plytnykas also claimed that Jolanta had stolen bank cards from him in the weeks before she was killed.

In the letter he says that he “suspected Jolanta from the beginning” because he heard that she used to work as a prostitute in Moscow.

Plytnykas writes that the jury believed “false evidence” and “didn’t find all the details” in their verdict and he wants “everyone to know the real story of that crime”.

During the trial at Edinburgh High Court in 2009, no claims that Jolanta stole credit cards were heard. The jury was told that the pair had targeted Jolanta as they believed she had significant savings.