The father of schoolgirl Emily Jones - who was killed in a Bolton park on Mother's Day - said he felt 'relieved' as her killer failed in her sentence appeal bid.
Emily, seven, had been riding her scooter towards her mother in Queen's Park on March 22, 2020, when she was grabbed by Eltiona Skana, who fatally slashed her across the neck with a craft knife.
Skana pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility and was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 10 years and eight months following a court appearance last year.
The 31-year-old - who suffers from severe paranoid schizophrenia - appealed against her punishment, with her lawyers arguing the minimum term was too long and that the judge should only have given her a hospital order.
Today (February 2), three judges sitting at the Court of Appeal in London dismissed the appeal.
Explaining the decision, Lady Justice Macur admitted the sentencing judge in Skana's case had a 'difficult exercise', but accepted his original decisions.
She said the judge had 'sufficient evidence' to find Skana 'knew that what she did was wrong and attempted to escape detection and escape the scene'.
Mark Jones, Emily's father, watched the appeal hearing over a video link.
"I'm more relieved than happy, but I think justice and common sense prevailed," he told the Manchester Evening News .
"We all know she's a manipulative and dangerous individual and the three judges all saw that today.
"They were all quite happy that she had the capacity and self control to know what she was doing."
He added: "She had some capacity - not full capacity, but she had some capacity - she knew what was right from wrong and she picked someone vulnerable, which was my beautiful daughter, and she did what she did."
Skana's sentence is a hybrid, comprising a prison sentence and a hospital order.
It means she will be kept at a secure psychiatric hospital until doctors deem it safe for her to begin her sentence - which may never happen.
Mr Jones, who was walking with Emily through Queens Park just moments before she rode off on her scooter to see her mum, said he doesn't think his daughter's killer should ever be released.
"As long I'm breathing, I'll do everything I can do to keep her where she is," he said.
"She needs to be locked up for the rest of her life. She's a dangerous individual. Whether that's in a secure mental hospital or a prison, that's for them to decide really.
"All I want to do is make sure she doesn't do it to anybody else's child so that no family would have to go through what we've been through - and she's capable of that so she needs to be somewhere and locked up so she can't get out in the community again as far as I'm concerned."
It first emerged that Skana's lawyers planned to appeal against her sentence in August last year.
Mr Jones said hearing about the appeal was difficult.
"Your instant rejection is 'is this really in the public's interest?'," he added.
"It's binary what happened, it's 'did she or didn't she?'. And we all know she did it, it's as simple as that, there's no dark area here.
"But honestly, after reflecting on it I thought 'well this is part of the process and everyone deserves their right to appeal I suppose - even this monster'.
"And, as a result, she got what she deserved."
Bolton Coroner Timothy Brennand has already opened an inquest into Emily's death which will look into the way mental health services managed Skana and why she was allowed out into the community on that tragic day in March.
The coroner was told about an independent report from NHS England, which will look into the killer's management and treatment by staff from Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Trust.
The inquest is expected to take place in late June or early July of this year.
