Sister of murdered teenage girl Sasha Marsden wants justice for grieving families of murder victims as 'evil' killer David Minto is eligible for parole

In July 2013, Katie Brett sat in Preston Crown Court, hearing the horrific details of how her sister, Sasha Marsden, was tortured to death.

A horrific murder trial left Katie feeling broken

During a two-week murder trial, Katie recalls how she was shown a body map depicting Sasha’s injuries, because the actual pictures were ‘too gruesome to show a jury’.

She said the trial left her feeling ‘broken’ and suicidal, after listening to how David Minto inflicted over 100 injuries on 16-year-old Sasha, before murdering her in a Blackpool hotel on January 31, 2013.

Gruesome descriptions she will never forget

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: “Your imagination does the work there and images will stay in your mind forever. Hearing the descriptions of the murder scene, the police evidence showing Sasha’s blood not only soaked the carpet but soaked through carpet underlay and right into the wooden floorboard and it was saturated as she has no blood left in her body.”

Cold-blooded killer and rapist eligible for parole in 2048

So when Minto was handed a 35 year sentence she ‘had no fight left’ to question it.

Minto will be eligible for parole in 2048.

But they were only given 28 days to appeal, under a law which Katie is now fighting to change.

‘Extremely dangerous man’ could be free to kill again

The family believe the killer and rapist should have received a whole life order, and that the sentence, meaning he could be 57 when he gets out of prison, was ‘unduly lenient’.

Katie added: “David Minto had attacked at least 3 vulnerable young girls with no intervention from the justice system before eventually killing Sasha in 2013. He will kill again, and as he goes for young vulnerable females, it’s safe to say that his next victim hasn’t even been born yet. He will always be a danger to women and should not be given the opportunity to kill again. At least Sashas death achieved something and that was an extremely dangerous man was removed from our streets. If he is released to do this again Sashas death will be for nothing."

READ MORE: Family of Sasha Marsden’s fresh appeal to keep evil killer David Minto behind bars.

Grief is not taken into consideration

Ten years after the court case, Katie and her family are campaigning to ask the Government to remove the 28-day time limit for applying to the lenient sentence scheme to have a sentence reviewed, for convictions of murder.

Katie says she will fight for ‘every person who’s been stolen from this world’, and that she is doing this to help other families of murder victims who are experiencing the same grief.

“The justice system needs to acknowledge that a families grief is a thing that they need to take into consideration. Why should he have 35 years to plan for his parole when we only have 28 days to decide whether or not we want to appeal his sentence? Many people say he should be hung, but the best we can ever hope for is that he spends the rest of his life in jail.”

Support the campaign at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/631316