A KILLER who set fire to his victim’s Northolt home to cover his tracks was jailed for life at the Old Bailey on Tuesday.

Jason Marshall, 29, will serve a minimum term of 39 years for the murder of Peter Fasoli. He was also sentenced to five years for arson, to run concurrently.

The jury heard how Marshall set up a rendezvous via a gay dating site with Mr Fasoli and tortured him for a prolonged period before suffocating him. He set fire to the home in Rubens Road after taking his victim's credit card, using it to flee by plane to Italy.

Mr Fasoli, 58, died in January 2013. The case was originally treated as non-suspicious, following a fire brigade investigation, which concluded the fire was most likely caused by a faulty light bulb.

However, around a year later, Mr Fasoli's nephew decided to collect the hard drive of his uncle's computer, which was being stored with other belongings by a friend in Yorkshire.

The nephew hoped to find family tree 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.

Mr Fasoli had unwittingly captured his own murder on the web camera that he had on his computer.

The film, shown to the jury, showed Marshall arriving kitted out with police accessories he had bought on the internet and he and Mr Fasoli engaging in what appeared to be consensual role-playing based on an 'interrogation'.

Marshall then began a prolonged and violent domination of Mr Fasoli, culminating in his murder. This included threatening him at knifepoint, and forcibly injecting him on multiple occasions. Classic FM radio station was playing throughout.

Inquiries found Marshall had contacted and met his victim on at least one occasion in the weeks before the murder and had led Peter to think he would be bringing another young man along to join them for the evening.

Police discovered that Marshall was in prison in Italy in late 2014, 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 also took place in the context of sexual encounters.

Det Insp James Stevenson said: “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 his cries for help, knowing he was fighting to stay alive.

“Marshall then did everything he could to evade being brought to justice.”