A man alleged to be at the centre of a murder case involving bondage went on to kill a second man and tried to strangle a third after fleeing to Italy, a court was told yesterday.
Jason Marshall, 28, is accused of setting fire to the bungalow of his first victim, Peter Fasoli, and using his bank card to fly to Rome where he carried out two more attacks in less than a month, the Old Bailey was told.
Mr Marshall, who met all three victims through the social networking site Badoo, initially escaped justice over Mr Fasoli’s killing in January 2013 after investigators concluded that he died in the fire, the prosecution has said. He is alleged to have smothered Mr Fasoli to death during a bondage sex session with the radio station Classic FM playing in the background. Christopher Murgatroyd, Mr Fasoli’s nephew, examined his fire-damaged computer in November 2014 and found footage of his uncle begging for his life and being tortured and murdered by Mr Marshall, the jury was told.
Giving evidence yesterday Mr Marshall said he accepted that he was the man in the video, but had no memory of what happened, and felt “very bad that somebody died and it could potentially be me”.
Edward Brown, QC, for the prosecution, said that on January 26, less than three weeks after Mr Fasoli’s death, Mr Marshall murdered Vincenzo Iale, 67, in his flat in Rome. Italian investigators found that Mr Iale was strangled with an electrical flex. Mr Iale’s car was stolen and his bank card was used to make cash withdrawals.
Advertisement
On February 3, Mr Marshall, pretending he worked at the British Embassy, went back to the flat in Rome of Umberto Gismondi, 54, for sex. He bound, gagged and attacked Mr Gismondi with a truncheon and pepper spray and tried to smother him with a cushion. Mr Marshall fled when Mr Gismondi alerted his neighbours, but was later arrested, jurors were told.
He was convicted in Italy of Mr Iale’s murder. Jurors were told that UK police liaised with their Italian counterparts to arrange the return of Mr Marshall to the UK in February.
Mr Marshall, of east London, denies murder. The trial continues.
