STABBED TO DEATH OVER A £10 DEBT Family of tragic mother slam her killer’s lenient’ sentence
It’s mini Cooper
MCFLY singer Danny Jones, 31, became a dad yesterday when his wife Georgia gave birth to 7lb 15oz son Cooper Alf. THE daughter of a woman stabbed to death over £10 has told of her anger at the killer’s sentence.
Demi Hodge branded the term of five- and- a- half years handed down by a judge to Siobhan Russell “an insult” and vowed to fight to get it increased.
Russell, 31, was jailed earlier this month for killing Demi’s mother Marie Low, 36, in a row over a disputed tenner.
The pair, who were feuding neighbours, had come to blows in the street outside their homes.
Demi ran to intervene after hearing screams and was horrified to see both women and her pregnant sister covered in blood.
She wrestled the knife away from Russell while her mum collapsed, dying later in hospital despite a desperate battle to save her.
Student Demi, 20, said: “A sentence of 5½ years is nothing for taking my mother’s life. We’ve set up a petition because we are determined to do what we can to get justice for mum.
“Nothing will bring her back but this feels like an insult.”
Tragedy s t r uck in September 2016 after Marie made a fatal bid to make amends with her nightmare neighbour.
The pair had lived on the same road without any problems until a fallout over £10, which spiralled out of control.
Russell would shout at Marie in the street, turn up to her house unannounced demanding money, spread nasty rumours behind her back and even started a fist fight with her.
On the day of the killing Demi and sister Jamie-Leigh, 18, were having breakfast at Marie’s home.
She was looking forward to becoming a grandmother and hoped to settle her differences with Russell to restore some calm.
Demi said: “We were having breakfast and chatting about buying a pram because Jamie-Leigh was six months pregnant.
Weapon
“Mum loved babies and she couldn’t wait to be a gran. Then she mentioned she was going to go and sort things out with Siobhan.”
Marie was accompanied by Jamie-Leigh as she set off.
But they had not even got as far as Russell’s door before she came out with a knife in her hand and a fight ensued, in which Marie was stabbed in the chest.
Demi rushed out and disarmed Russell, with a passer-by hurling the weapon away into a garden.
When police arrived the two sisters were taken to their local station in the Scottish city of Dundee to give statements.
But their interviews were interrupted by the news that Marie was in a critical condition.
They rushed to hospital to be met by their rest of their family, who told them Marie had died.
Demi, who has another sister, Shanice, 15, said: “It was the sort of thing that happens on TV.”
Just over a year after the killing the sisters faced Russell in court.
The jury rejected her claims of self-defence and found her guilty of culpable homicide, equivalent in Scotland to manslaughter.
Demi said: “We knew it would be a lower sentence than murder but when we found out it was only 5½ years we were devastated.
“My mum never got to meet her granddaughter Kasie-Marie, who Jamie named after her. Her killer could be out of jail before KasieMarie even starts school.”
The petition against the sentence can be found at change.org by searching for family member Natalie Clark’s name.