Evil barman David Minto was yesterday convicted of stabbing to death a petrified 16-year-old girl in a frenzied attack at a hotel.
Minto, 23, was jailed for life after knifing child care student Sasha Marsden 58 times, sexually assaulting her as she lay dying or was already dead, then burning her body in an alley.
The killer – who nicknamed himself Demon – used Facebook to lure Sasha to the hotel where he lived and worked.
A court heard that when she rejected his sexual advances at the property, she was stabbed in the head, neck and face with a kitchen knife as she tried to flee.
Sasha’s grief-stricken mum Jayne said: “For his sexual gratification he’s robbed us of saying goodbye to her. He’s robbed us of everything. I can never forgive him.”
In a victim impact statement heard in court, Jayne and Sasha’s dad Gary said: “Each wound you inflicted upon Sasha has stabbed at the heart of each and every one of her family.”
They added that the way she died “will haunt us for the rest of our lives”.
Minto enticed Sasha to the hotel on January 31 on the pretence of giving her a job as a cleaner.
The killer probably attacked her from behind because 48 of the stab wounds were to the back of her head, Preston crown court heard.
Minto wrapped her body in carpet underlay, a duvet cover and a bin liner before taking it to the alley behind the property in Blackpool, Lancs, and setting it alight.
Sasha’s injuries were so severe she had to be identified by DNA from her toothbrush
The Recorder of Preston, Judge Anthony Russell QC, said yesterday: “You murdered her in the most brutal fashion.”
Telling Minto he must serve at least 35 years, the judge added: “You are a very dangerous and evil man.”
Neighbours spotted the burning body but thought it was a mannequin until Minto pointed out it was a person.
Police then found the victim’s blood on Minto’s clothes and throughout the hotel owned by his girlfriend’s family.
The killer, found guilty of murder, claimed he and Sasha, who lived with her parents in Staining, Lancs, had sex at the hotel before she left unharmed.
Minto said she must have returned unnoticed and was killed by someone else.
He said he removed her body from the hotel because blood makes him queasy.
The court heard he had lured other girls to the hotel when he knew it would be empty.