Sasha Marsden was lured to her death by a sadistic killer, who offered her a fake job in a Blackpool hotel.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 She actually died three weeks ago, thinking that nobody cared about her daughter, and
00:07 nobody cared enough to take a minute to sign a petition.
00:12 And I promised my mum that we'd do it, we will do it mum, I promise you we'll do it.
00:19 And we didn't.
00:20 My sister was murdered and I'm a big sister and I didn't save her.
00:23 But now I've failed my mum as well, because I promised my mum.
00:25 So, Sasha, when she was 16, she was offered a job in a hotel by a male on Facebook.
00:39 They had mutual friends and they'd met Sasha previously, they'd been to Coral Island together
00:42 with a friend.
00:43 And they asked if she wanted a job in his hotel.
00:47 Sasha jumped at the chance.
00:49 At 16, you know, it's a bit of spending money for her.
00:52 Her dad dropped her off and she, obviously we never saw her again.
00:58 And it turned out that there was actually no job.
01:01 He'd lured her there at a time when he knew his girlfriend wouldn't be at home.
01:06 And once she arrived at the hotel, he attacked her, the evidence suggests instantly, he attacked
01:15 her from behind with a knife.
01:16 She had over 100 stab wounds to her head, face and neck.
01:20 There was 58 just to the back of her head.
01:22 There was no blood left in her body by the time she'd passed away.
01:27 That was the cause of death.
01:28 Then he put her in the bath, he sexually assaulted her while she was dying or dead already.
01:37 And then he wrapped her up in carpet underlay, bedding, whatever he could find in the hotel,
01:44 put her in a wheelie bin, wheeled her outside into the alleyway, tipped her out into the
01:49 back alleyway and set her on fire.
02:03 And so when you're in court and you're hearing all that evidence, you're finding out that
02:07 evidence at the same time as everybody else.
02:09 So you're hearing exactly what happened to Sasha, how much she suffered, what he did
02:16 to her.
02:17 And then you're hearing him when he's standing up there giving evidence and what he was saying
02:20 about her and the descriptions he gave was horrific.
02:22 And we're all hearing that for the first time.
02:28 It's not just grief.
02:30 It's more than grief because it's trauma.
02:33 I'm a parent now and I can't even let my mind go to even think about anything happening
02:38 to my boys.
02:40 So when you're sitting there and you're listening, that's your baby, that's your little girl
02:44 and that's happened to them.
02:46 And then for the next 28 days, you're not thinking, "Oh, well, I want to go and do that
02:50 again."
02:53 Because that's what it means.
02:54 If you appeal that sentence, you have to pick apart all that evidence.
02:59 You have to pick apart the whole thing.
03:01 You have to look at what the judge has said.
03:02 You've got to relive it all.
03:04 The sentencing guidelines do state certain sentences for certain offences and certain
03:09 aggravating and mitigating factors.
03:11 And the judge stated all the aggravating factors of this case and what he did to Sasha.
03:16 And it was the sexually motivated murder of a child.
03:20 There was sadistic...
03:21 It was a sexual motive.
03:23 There was sadistic behaviours there.
03:26 The prolonged suffering that Sasha had, the attempts to destroy her body, the fact that
03:30 he raped her while she was dead or dying proves that it was...
03:36 How could it have not been sexual and it was premeditated?
03:40 With this, it was all proven.
03:41 There was no doubt at all.
03:43 So it was...
03:44 It does meet the criteria for a whole life order.
03:47 And the judge even says in his sentencing remarks, "There is no mitigation."
03:52 So if there's no mitigation, then there's no reason why he shouldn't have got that whole
03:56 life order.
03:58 The CPS put the case forward, and it still wasn't referred, but there's no justification
04:04 as to why it wasn't referred.
04:05 They've said, "Oh, this case was...
04:07 The Attorney General's Office have said this case was referred to us back in 2013 by the
04:12 CPS."
04:13 So the CPS must have known that this was an unduly lenient sentence, but then you're relying
04:17 on the Attorney General's Office to do the right thing.
04:21 And they're saying, "Well, we didn't refer it, but we can't tell you why we didn't refer
04:25 it because we don't have a record."
04:27 [Music]
04:39 Every day she'd wake up and the first thing she'd check is the petition.
04:42 And even if there was one signature, you know, every time...
04:45 One signature, "Oh, we've got another signature."
04:47 She knew exactly how many signatures we had.
04:50 With the first petition, and it was going up in the thousands, and it was going up really
04:54 quickly, and I wish I'd have got her reaction.
04:58 Every time it hit another thousand, she was punching the air, "Yes, yes, yes!"
05:03 It meant so much to her.
05:06 And I just wish I'd got that reaction, because if people could see how much it meant to her,
05:10 then perhaps they might have seen it from a mum's perspective, because I'm just Sasha's
05:17 sister.
05:19 I always say, "That's her mum."
05:22 As a mum, imagine this happening to your child.
05:26 What would you do?
05:27 And what would you want?
05:28 And you know the answer to that.
05:30 You don't need to ask me what my mum wanted, because as any mum, they will know what they
05:35 would want if it was their daughter that it happened to.
05:38 My sister was murdered, and I'm a big sister, and I didn't save her.
05:41 But now I've failed my mum as well, because I promised my mum.
05:44 And are you going to keep on fighting for those signatures?
05:50 Yeah.
05:51 Until I'm dead.
05:52 Until I'm dead.
05:53 Until I'm dead.
05:54 Until I'm dead.
05:54 Until I'm dead.
05:55 Until I'm dead.
05:55 Until I'm dead.