Gossip: Hotel worker, who lured a 16yr student into sex, stabbed her 58 times

A hotel worker who stabbed a 16-year-old girl to death in a frenzied sex attack after luring her to a hotel with the promise of a job was jailed for a minimum of 35 years today.


David Minto, 22, who nicknamed himself 'The Demon', used Facebook to entice young women to the seaside B&B where he lived and worked.

When Sasha Marsden arrived after being told a job was available, Minto pounced on her and then stabbed her 58 times in the head, face and neck with a kitchen knife when she tried to run away.

The court heard he had sexually defiled her as she lay dying or was already dead.

Minto, who was a caretaker and barman at the hotel, wrapped her body in a bin bag, carpet and duvet before dumping it an alleyway and setting it on fire.

Police who found her body thought at first it was a tailor’s dummy which had been set alight.

The college student, from Staining, near Blackpool, could only be identified by DNA from her toothbrush.

Today Minto was branded a 'real life Norman Bates' after he was convicted of murder at Preston Crown Court.

He was jailed for life by Judge Anthony Russell QC who told him he had killed Sasha in a 'brutal fashion'.

Minto was a drifter had only got a job thanks to his long-time girlfriend Rachel Butterworth, whose mother owned the Grafton House Hotel in Kirby Road, Blackpool.

The court heard he was a 'sexual predator' who had a fascination with violent movies like Scarface and Resident Evil and trawled social media sites looking for women to lure back to the B&B whilst his unsuspecting girlfriend was out.

Kimberley Fazackerly, 22, told how she was 'frightened and scared' after Minto pounced on her after she agreed to visit the premisis following a series of text and Facebook messages.

Miss Fazackerly said: 'In 2012, David got in contact on Facebook and he said he had a hotel in Blackpool. He said he ran it with his girlfriend Rachel and her mum. He said he owned the hotel.

'I did visit the hotel on one occasion and David gave me a tour showing me the bar, his and Rachel’s room, Rachel’s mum’s room and Rachel’s brother’s room. After that we went into Rachel and David’s room and sat on the bed. I felt scared as I could feel something was going to happen.'

She told the court Minto touched her inappropriately. 'I told him to get off but he didn’t get off straight away,' she said.
'I told him again and he got the message. I was very frightened. I left and went straight home.'

Miss Fazackerly said after the incident in the hotel she never went back and she ignored any further messages from Minto on Facebook.

On January 27 - four days before her death - Minto contacted Sasha on Facebook using his nickname David ‘Demon’ Minto.
He talked about the prospect of a cleaning job at the hotel to 'arouse her interest in meeting him' even though he did not have the authority or money to offer her job.

He also kept his contact with Sasha as a ‘complete and total secret’ from his girlfriend and arranged his meeting whilst Rachel was out.

Sasha - a child care student at the Blackpool and The Fylde College - got a lift from her father to the hotel at 4pm on January 31.

Three hours later a neighbour spotted smoke and flames in the L-shaped alleyway by the hotel and doused the flames with a bucket of water - unaware there was a body on fire.

By 8pm, Sasha’s parents Jane and Gary had become anxious about their daughter and went to the hotel where they met Minto. He told them she had left hours earlier.

Examinations revealed Sasha had suffered ‘terrible and catastrophic’ injuries as she ‘struggled ferociously’ in a vain attempt to fend off the ‘sexually motivated’ killer.

Forensic tests showed the teenager’s blood was found on the defendant’s clothing, throughout the hotel and on the murder weapon.

Her blood-stained Adidas top, shoes, purse and mobile phone were found in a wheelie bin. Her mobile phone had been dismantled and the battery removed.

When police searched a bathroom at the hotel later they discovered someone had tried to flush Sasha’s jewellery and earrings down the toilet and her DNA was found in the bath.

Minto was arrested on January 31 and went on to tell ‘a series of lies’ to hide his involvement, including a claim that Sasha had ‘thrown herself’ at him sexually.

He told a jury at Preston Crown Court that he last saw her leaving the hotel and she must have returned while he was upstairs and met her death at the hands of a mystery assailant.

He did admit moving the body in a state of shock but did not set her alight, he claimed.

His version of events was rejected by the jury after less than three hours of deliberation.