Killer guilty of two murders after using gay hook-up apps to lure victims
A man has been found guilty of a second murder, after terrorising an elderly man in his home before killing him.
Jason Marshall, 28, posed as a police officer and an MI5 agent before stripping gagging and smothering 58-year-old Peter Fasoli
He used cling film to suffocate his victim before setting fire to his home in an attempt to cover his tracks.
The death of Fasoli had been assumed as an accident for almost two years, but his nephew came across CCTV footage of his murder on a hard drive.
Jason Marshall was found guilty of a second murder
Marshall had used Fasoli’s bank cards following the murder to travel to Rome, where he killed a second man and attempted to kill a third within weeks of the original kiling.
The East Ham resident, Marshall, who is currently serving 16 years for the Italy attacks, has now been found guilty of murdering Fasoli and of Arson following a trial at the Old Bailey.
The Guardian reports that Marshall showed no remorse and did not react as the verdict was delivered.
Jurors had deliberated for just more than an hour before delivering the guilty verdicts.
He had used the dating site Badoo to stalk his victims and was formerly a male escort.
The court heard that Marshall had posed as a police officer and MI5 agent and went to Fasoli’s Northolt flat on 6 January 2013.
During the incident, he “arrested” Fasoli for “being a spy”, and during a fake interrogation had threatened to cut his tongue with a hunting knife in order to gain his card PINs.
The footage of Fasoli’s murder was shown to jurors, as he was bound, naked on his bed, begging for his life and saying he could not breathe when Marshall wrapped his head with cling film
Links have been made between the killings and those perpetrated by ‘Grindr serial killer’ Stephen Port, who was imprisoned earlier this year after killing four men.
Police have been criticised for not realising the nature of Fasoli’s death, given that his bank cards were used after his death.
The murders were compared to those committed by Stephen Port, who was jailed for killing four men
Peter Tatchell who has monitored the case and has criticised the police handling of the investigation said:”This case has echoes of the serial killing of gay men by Stephen Port and of the way the police failed to investigate those killings properly. Officers appear to have not checked Fasoli’s mobile phone, computer, bank transactions and the CCTV at his flat. If they had done these checks, they would have quickly discovered suspicious evidence, including a computer file that recorded hours of torture and eventual murder.
“Fasoli was incinerated in a fire started by Marshall to cover up the killing. Police say the fire service said the blaze was accidental, caused by a faulty light bulb. But the light switch was in the off position, so this clearly was not the cause.
“I am urging the Independent Police Complaints Commission to mount an inquiry into the way the police handled the case and for the London fire authorities to also investigate the failings by the fire service. I am shocked that the IPCC has, so far, declined to do so.
“This is yet another instance where a murdered gay man has been let down by the authorities. Shockingly, it took the dead man’s nephew to uncover the fact that he was murdered.
“Fasoli’s killing is just the latest example of an isolated, vulnerable gay man being murdered by a predator using datings apps. It is a wake call to men who hook up online.”
The investigation into Fasoli’s death had initially found that he died from smoke inhalation and that a light bulb above his bed had probably caused the fire.
A pathologist had found that he was alive but unconscious when the fire started.
After fleeing to Italy, Marshall had strangled 67-year-old Vincenzo Iale with electrical flex in his flat, and stole his bank cards and car during a second attack on 26 January 2013.
He later posed as a British Embassy official, meeting 54-year-old Umberto Gismondi.
After binding and gagging Gismondi and demanding that he give him cash, Marshall fled after neighbours were alerted.
Marshall was convicted of murder for 16 years in July 2014.
During the original trial, Marshall had said that he did not kill Iale, that it was someone else, and that Gismondi had attacked him.
But he admitted at his Old Bailey trial that he had lied, and claimed he had suffered from memory loss during that period.
He admitted to jurors that he enjoyed role-play and dressing up as officials. He had been arrested several times for impersonating police officers.
Marshall also admitted that he had attempted to “terrify” Fasoli when asked by Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC.
