I'm trying to keep the man who murdered my sister behind bars says Sasha Marsden's sister

It is 12 years since Sasha Marsden was murdered. Her sister, Katie Brett, has been campaigning since then to remove the 28-day appeal limit over what she views to be the unduly lenient sentence scheme for murder.

During a two-week murder trial, Katie recalls listening to how David Minto inflicted over 100 injuries on 16-year-old Sasha before murdering and raping her in a Blackpool hotel on January 31, 2013.

Sasha had been lured to a hotel, thinking she was going to an interview for a part-time cleaning job.

Her body was then dumped and set alight in an alleyway behind the Grafton House Hotel in Blackpool, where Minto lived.

Katie said: "At the time when we started the campaign, my mum was still alive, and she really wanted to make sure that the guy who killed her daughter would never be released.

“She passed away in March last year from lung cancer. She died before she got to see this change because it was her dying wish, and we won't stop fighting.”

Minto was sentenced to 35 years by Preston Crown Court; he will be eligible for parole in 2048.

"It is 12 years tomorrow, and it feels literally like yesterday; if 12 years can pass so fast, even though so much has happened in 12 years and in another 12 years it will be 24 years and then another 12 years, and it will be 36 years, and he will be out. It shows how fast time goes; I have seen in the papers that such a person is getting parole,” said Katie.

“I don't want to ever be in that situation; I don't want to be sitting in a parole hearing in 23 years' time, begging a parole board not to let him out. While he plays the system which he has done time and time again".

The current rules around appeals on unduly lenient sentences gives the families of victims 28 days to appeal, but Katie does not think that this takes into account the grieving period.

"I don't want that hanging over my head that one day he is going to get out when he should have got a whole life order,” said Katie.

“When the judge was making his sentencing remarks in the trial, he said I do not feel that the criteria for a whole life order have been met, but he never said why.

“When I looked at the criteria, it was the sexually motivated murder of a child. A person under 18 and it stipulates that.

“There were aggravating factors such as there was a breach of trust because he lured her there with a job offer, the suffering she endured and the fact that he burned her body afterwards.

“We never got to see Sasha after she passed away.

"We couldn't even say goodbye to her properly, and we couldn't even give her a kiss because he stole that from us. Not only did he steal Sasha he stole our goodbye as well."

According to Gov.uk, the criteria for a whole life term for murder is: "A whole life order is the appropriate starting point for the sentence are: (i) the murder of two or more persons involving substantial degree of premeditation or planning, abduction of the victim or sexual or sadistic conduct (ii) the murder of a child involving the abduction of a child or sexual or sadistic motivation (iii) the murder of a police or prison officer in the course of his or her duty (iv) the murder done for purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause; or (v) the murder by an offender previously convicted of murder. "

This campaign and petition that Katie has launched runs for 6 months and ends on May 6 2025. This is the fourth time that Katie has campaigned to try and get 100,000 signatures, so the issue of the 28-day appeal time period is considered for debate in parliament.

"I think the mistake that the judge made was and the mistake that the courts have made is throughout the trial and even during his appeal, they referred to Sasha as a young woman, for the sake of legal terms she was a child under the law she was under 18 and why were they referring to her as a young woman throughout the trial. I think this prejudiced the trial because they have referred to her as a young woman, therefore suggesting that Sasha was an adult".

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Katie talked about the trial being really difficult, and she talked about how her mindset during the trial was that I would not let him see me cry. Katie's Dad, Gary, always felt guilty as he was the one who drove her to the hotel.

"After you have lost a loved one to murder, you are told very minimal details after the offence because the police have a case they have to build, and all their parts of the case are evidence, and the evidence does not get disclosed until the trial. You don't even get a death certificate.

“You walk into that courtroom blind, and you then find out at the same as everybody else that she was stabbed over 100 times; they have a body map up; one blessing was that they did not have pictures up because that would have been cruel considering we weren't allowed to see her.

“You have the body map there with the injuries drawn on when you know Sasha, and you know her body. I might just be an outline of a person, but you see Sasha's face on that, you see where those injuries are.

"You can hear that she fought for her life. She had defence wounds on her hand, and she had no blood left in her body. The descriptions are all from evidence; it's all from forensics, so you are getting all of these descriptions, and you may as well just see them.

“Then you have to walk away and find out all of that, you are supposed to put your legal head on and think that's not an appropriate sentence.

“Who on earth wants to go and think about it more, pick it apart, and say that sentence isn't right.”

Katie does not believe that Minto can be rehabilitated.

"It was our job to protect her,” she said.

Katie described drinking heavily after an especially challenging day of the trial.

You can sign the petition here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700168