Bolton Sister of murdered Sasha Marsden campaign 10 years on

And the campaign to raise awareness of violence against women and girls and help those affected in her memory continues

Sasha Marsden was stabbed 58 times in the head, neck, and face in a “sexually motivated” murder in 2013 at the age of only 16 in Blackpool.

Campaigner Gemma Aitchison from Westhoughton created YES Matters not long after the murder to help victims of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

She is continuing to fight for the cause because she believes that the justice system is failing women and girls.

She added: “I don’t particularly have faith in the rehabilitation of these people.

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“I have spent the last 10 years trying to make a safer place for everyone’s daughters and sisters.

“These women and girls who have been killed have already been failed.

“As a family we have a whole life sentence, and it should be for him.

“If you meet the full life tariff criteria you should get life, but he didn’t, and we don’t understand why.

“Although Sasha and some other women and girls meet the criteria, it seems you have to be affluent or know someone.

“It should be a life for a life.”

• ALSO READ: Bolton campaigner raises concerns over child sexual exploitation
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• Gemma says that Sasha was just a normal teenage girl and that there are many things that Sasha cannot do that David Minto – who killed Sasha – will be able to.

She said: “He can have a child, birthdays, and do so many things that Sasha won’t be able to because of what he did.

“Even in prison he will get a Merry Christmas and family chatting to him.”

Sasha had dreams of working in a school to help children with additional needs and was very much into the singer Olly Murs.

Gemma added: “She was a normal teenage girl at 16 years of age and gaining her independence with her first job.”

YES Matters uses youth work and informal education to talk to young people about consent, body image, pornography and media influence.

Because of the charitable organisation's campaigning children now have a compulsory PSHE lesson at school, where they learn about consent, the harm of gender stereotypes and pornography and about healthy relationships.

Gemma has also created a petition calling on the Government (https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/631316) to remove the 28-day time limit for applying for the lenient sentence scheme for sentences to be reviewed when someone has been convicted of murder.

The family have now organised a series of protests taking place across Blackpool, Manchester, Bolton, and London on the anniversary of her death tomorrow, January 31.

They will all take place from 1pm-4pm, with the one in Bolton taking place outside the town hall steps.

If you have a story and something you would like to highlight in the community, please email me at jasmine.jackson@newsquest.co.uk or DM me on Twitter @JournoJasmine.