TEENAGER Charice Gassmann who murdered a mother of eight in broad daylight has launched an appeal against her conviction and sentence.

She is understood to be challenging the judge's directions to the jury about loss of control during her three week trial at Bristol Crown Court in December.

And the 19-year-old's sister Amberstasia, 23, is also appealing against the length of the 12-year jail term she received for her role in the killing.

Both defendants from Park South, pleaded not guilty to murder but the jury convicted Charice and found Amberstasia guilty of manslaughter.

Charice had already admitted the lesser charge and her defence rested mainly on the state of her mental health at the time of the incident.

A spokesman for the Court of Appeal in London confirmed that applications to appeal had been received from both sisters on different days in January.

Documents from the case will now be gathered from Bristol and a judge will decide on the merits of the two appeal separately.

If it is ruled that either of them have a case, it will go to a full appeal hearing before three senior judges who will rule whether to allow it.

Charice, who has a previous conviction for biting the face of a 14-year-old, was jailed for life and will not be allowed to apply for parole until she has served 19 years.

As well as challenging the murder verdict she is also trying to reduce the length of the tariff she received, should the conviction stand.

The teenager plunged a steak knife into the chest of 49-year-old grandmother Alison Connolly in the communal area of a block of flats after a fracas in a nearby shop.

Although she denied the charge of murder she pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Her defence team told the court that she had experienced a loss of control due to a personality disorder that she suffers from.

But after being in retirement for five days the jury convicted her of murder, with members of the victim's family shouting 'yes' as the verdict was returned.

Amberstasia was cleared of murder by the jury of eight men and four women but convicted of manslaughter.

The single deadly blow was delivered by Charice, who was described in court as 'a bully out for revenge'.

The stabbing came after Alison had confronted her killer in a local shop about brown sauce being found on her daughter Kylie Hayes' pushbike.

Charice was left with a bloodied forehead after Alison headbutted her during the disagreement in the Premier Store, on Cavendish Square, on May 12 last year.

Angered at being struck by the older lady she was heard in the street shouting 'Call the police, there's going to be a murder,' and that she was going to 'nank that bitch'.

The sisters then went to Evelyn House, in Park South, to continue the argument and Alison was fatally stabbed in the communal stairwell.

Alison had wanted to apologise to Charice, the jury were told, and told a friend to find her.

But she did not know the sisters were on their way to her and that Charice was armed with a knife.

During the three-week trial the jury saw harrowing CCTV footage of Alison’s final moments, which shows the sisters moving towards her.