Mum died fighting to keep daughter’s killer behind bars

National World - Broadcast Video

Sasha Marsden was lured to her death by a sadistic killer, who offered her a fake job in a Blackpool hotel.

Transcript

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.

05:55 Until I'm dead.

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