A MAN WHO pretended to be an undercover police officer during a murder has been found guilty of killing a man he met on a gay dating website.
Peter Fasoli, 58, was killed in his London home by Jason Marshall in January 2013.
Marshall, aged 28, later set fire to the bungalow in Northolt to cover up the murder. He was also convicted of arson today.
Fasoli’s death was thought to be an accident until his nephew found CCTV of the murder stored on his hard drive.
The jury at the Old Bailey in London heard how Marshall set up a rendezvous via a gay dating site with Fasoli at his Ealing home. Marshall tortured him for a prolonged period before suffocating him.
He then committed arson in a bid to hide the evidence of the brutal murder and stole his victim’s credit card using it to flee to Italy a few days after the murder.
Death not treated as suspicious
The case was originally treated as not suspicious, following an investigation by London Fire Brigade and police, which concluded the fire was accidental, with the most likely cause for the fire being a faulty light bulb.
A forensic pathologist who examined Fasoli’s body found no evidence of any third-party involvement and the inquest held at West London Coroner’s Court on 16 August 2013 returned a verdict of accidental death.
However, around a year later, Fasoli’s nephew decided to collect the hard drive from his uncle’s computer, which was being stored on behalf of the family with other belongings that had survived the fire.
His nephew knew his uncle had been interested in the family tree and hoped to find research preserved on the computer system.
Instead, he discovered a number of videos featuring his uncle taking part in sexual activities with other men – including the horrific seven-hour film of the encounter with Marshall.
Murder captured on video
Fasoli had unwittingly captured his own murder on the web camera that he had on his computer in the living room.
The film, shown to the jury in court, showed Marshall arriving kitted out with generic police accessories he had purchased on the Internet. The pair talked for a time before engaging in what appeared to be consensual role-playing based on police interrogation techniques before Marshall initiated what became a prolonged and violent domination of Fasoli, which culminated in his murder.
The video captured Fasoli being threatened at knifepoint. He was also forcibly injected on multiple occasions.
According to the Met Police, the audio from the video captures the sounds of Fasoli shouting at Marshall as he smothered him with sheets of cling film. Fasoli is then pulled off the bed and out of view of the camera.
However, despite Fasoli clearly being distressed, Marshall ignores his cries.
Once the incident is over, Fasoli is left lying on the floor, with the video showing Marshall calmly smoking a cigarette before gathering his belongings.
Before the web camera lead is pulled out, the audio capture the sound of Marshall splashing liquid around and flicking a lighter. A short time later, Marshall is heard leaving the flat and the smoke alarm activates.
Covering his tracks
The court was told that the next morning Marshall sent a message to Fasoli through the same dating site apologising for not having turned up the night before in a further attempt to cover his tracks.
Marshall then used Fasoli’s bank card to withdraw hundreds of pounds and he then flew to Italy, where he sent further messages accusing Fasoli of “ignoring” him.
Police enquiries later showed that Marshall had contacted and met Fasoli on at least one occasion in the weeks before 7 January, and had led Fasoli to think that on the night of the murder he would be bringing another young man along to join them for the evening.
After the hard-drive was discovered, the Met’s Homicide and Major Crime Command launched its investigation into Fasoli’s murder in November 2014, and later discovered that Marshall was in prison in Italy having been convicted and jailed for a murder and subsequent attempted murder of two men in Rome just weeks after he fled the UK.
These incidents also took place in the context of sexual encounters.
The UK authorities obtained a European arrest warrant and he was returned to London to face trial.
Detective Inspector James Stevenson, of the Homicide and Major Crime Command, said:
“We are pleased that today’s verdict has brought Marshall to account for the brutal killing of Peter. This was a cold-blooded attack, during which Marshall cynically gained the trust of a vulnerable older man to get entry into his home, then subjected him to a horrific and prolonged ordeal and ruthlessly ignoring Peter’s cries for help knowing he was fighting to stay alive. Marshall then did everything he could to evade being brought to justice.
We would like to thank Peter’s family for the determination and strength they have shown in assisting us throughout this complex and challenging investigation.
Marshall is due to be sentenced at a later date.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say