Jason Marshall

Jason Marshall was born in 1988 and experienced a deeply troubled upbringing. Raised by parents with drug addiction issues, he spent much of his childhood in foster care and residential homes. His early years were marked by instability, poor educational attainment and repeated contact with social services.

As a teenager and young adult, Marshall developed a fascination with authority figures and frequently impersonated police officers and intelligence agents. He was diagnosed with several mental health conditions, including Asperger syndrome, a personality disorder, epilepsy and episodes of psychosis. He was assessed at the John Howard Centre while serving an earlier prison sentence and, in 2010, absconded while on day release before being recaptured several weeks later.

After briefly working as a cleaner during the London 2012 Olympic Games, Marshall drifted around London, unemployed and increasingly detached from reality. He continued impersonating police officers and claimed to be an MI5 operative, behaviour that later became central to his offending.

Marshall's known killing spree began on 7 January 2013, when he met 58-year-old computer technician Peter Fasoli through the Badoo dating website. Posing as an MI5 officer during what Fasoli believed was consensual role play, Marshall restrained and tortured him for several hours before suffocating him with cling film. He stole cash and bank cards, set Fasoli's bungalow on fire to destroy evidence, and fled to Italy using a flight purchased with the victim's bank card. Fasoli's death was initially ruled accidental until hidden video footage was discovered on his computer nearly two years later, prompting a murder investigation.

Less than three weeks later, while in Rome, Marshall met Vincenzo Iale, a 67-year-old tour operator, through the same dating website. Marshall strangled Iale with an electrical cord before stealing his vehicle, cash and bank cards. Days later he lured another man, Umberto Gismondi, to his apartment, where he assaulted and attempted to smother him. Gismondi survived after alerting neighbours, leading Italian police to Marshall's arrest.

Marshall's offences demonstrated an escalating pattern of violence, deception and robbery across multiple countries, establishing him as a serial killer whose crimes were committed in both the United Kingdom and Italy.

Marshall primarily targeted older men he met through online dating websites.

He commonly posed as a police officer, MI5 agent or British Embassy official, using uniforms, handcuffs, utility belts and other props to establish authority and gain his victims' trust. Once inside their homes, he restrained victims under the guise of role play before robbing them and using suffocation or ligature strangulation to kill them. He frequently stole cash, bank cards and vehicles before attempting to destroy or conceal evidence by setting fires or fleeing the jurisdiction.

Marshall's crime spree ended on 3 February 2013 in Rome after the attempted murder of Umberto Gismondi. When Gismondi's neighbours reported screams, police responded and Marshall fled. Investigators quickly identified him using evidence recovered from the scene and arrested him later that day. At the time of his arrest he was carrying items belonging to his victims and equipment used to support his false identity as a police or intelligence officer.

Italian authorities convicted Marshall of murdering Vincenzo Iale and attempting to murder Gismondi in 2014. After hidden video footage of Peter Fasoli's murder was discovered in London, British detectives reopened the investigation and secured Marshall's extradition from Italy in 2017 to stand trial at the Old Bailey.

Marshall stood trial in Rome in 2014 for the murder of Vincenzo Iale and the attempted murder of Umberto Gismondi. Although psychiatric evidence was presented, he was convicted and sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment under Italian law.

Following his extradition to the United Kingdom, Marshall was tried at the Old Bailey for the murder of Peter Fasoli. In August 2017 he was found guilty of murder and arson. During sentencing, the judge described the killing as sadistic and motivated by robbery and the enjoyment of causing suffering. Marshall received a life sentence with a minimum term of 39 years, to be served after his Italian sentence.

The murder of Peter Fasoli remained undetected for almost two years because investigators initially concluded he had died accidentally in a house fire. The case was dramatically reopened after Fasoli's nephew discovered surviving webcam footage stored on his uncle's computer, revealing the prolonged torture and murder. The discovery became one of the most remarkable pieces of digital evidence used in a British homicide investigation.

Marshall's crimes attracted widespread attention because they crossed international jurisdictions and demonstrated how offenders could use online dating platforms and false identities to identify and manipulate vulnerable victims. His murders of Peter Fasoli in the United Kingdom and Vincenzo Iale in Italy remain closely linked in true crime literature because they formed part of a continuous series of offences committed while Marshall was on the run.

• Peter Fasoli (58) – murdered in Northolt, London, England, on 7 January 2013 after Marshall posed as a police/MI5 officer, restrained him during a sexual role-play scenario, suffocated him with cling film, robbed him, and set fire to the home.
• Vincenzo Iale (67) – murdered in Rome, Italy, on 26 January 2013 by ligature strangulation with an electrical cord after Marshall fled the UK. He also robbed the victim and stole his car.