Stab victim Sasha was ‘brightest star’ (From The Bolton News)

Stab victim Sasha was ‘brightest star’

9:00am Thursday 28th February 2013 in News

HUNDREDS of mourners attended the funeral of a teenager originally from Bolton who was stabbed to death.

Sasha Marsden’s body was discovered in an alleyway in Blackpool, and yesterday the teenager’s family and friends said their final goodbye to the “bubbly and caring” youngster.

Dressed in pink and purple — Sasha’s favourite colours — mourners sobbed as the 16-year-old’s pink coffin was carried into St Chad’s Church, in Poulton, as Swedish House Mafia’s Don’t You Worry Child was played.

And in a poignant letter read to the congregation by the Rev Martin Keighley, Sasha’s best friend, Angel French, said: “Sasha Marsden was more than a friend to me, she was a sister and a protector.

“She was always there for me and never gave up. Even though she did like the attention and the arguments, she was also bubbly and caring. If you needed her, she would be there for you no matter what was going on in her life.”

Poems were also read by two of Sasha’s aunts, and her Aunty Gail described Sasha as the “brightest star”. She said: “Some things can’t be mended, a link in the chain of a large loving family that will never be the same.”

Sasha, who had moved to Staining on the Fylde Coast, was studying for a level one childcare course at Blackpool and the Fylde College when she died.

She had only joined the college in September, after studying at both Bispham High School and Collegiate High School, but Mandy Pritchard, head of school at the college, paid tribute to a “bright student” who had “certainly made an impact” on life in the college.

Sasha died on January 31, just hours after she had discussed embarking on a level two childcare course at the college in September.

Her body was discovered in an alleyway with up to 100 stab wounds to her head and face.

She had then been set alight.

David Minto, aged 22, from Kirby Road, Blackpool, has been charged with Sasha’s murder and will appear before Preston Crown Court on April 24.

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