August 2006 – Marion’s killer has no hope of release until at least 2020

 

May 2002

Child killer jailed after 20 years

A former Army chef has been jailed for life for the murder and rape of schoolgirl Marion Crofts 20 years ago.

Tony Jasinskyj, 45, was caught after traces of his DNA were found on clothing and the body of the teenager.

The advances in science made since the crime was committed enabled detectives to solve the murder riddle which dated back to 1981.

Marion, 14, was dragged from her bicycle as she rode to band practice in Aldershot, Hampshire, and beaten to death.

Jasinskyj, from Leicester, was jailed for life on Friday for murder and 10 years for the rape charge, to run concurrently.

He had denied the charges at Winchester Crown Court but the prosecution claimed that DNA obtained from semen found at the scene was a match to that taken from him.

The jury of seven men and five women heard 21 days of evidence and reached its verdicts on the second day of deliberations.

Sentencing Jasinskyj, Judge Michael Brodrick said: “The anguish that your action must have caused her parents, her family and friends, probably cannot be imagined.”

Marion was brutally raped and killed as she was cycling from her home in Basingbourne Close, Fleet, Hampshire, to Wavell School, North Camp, Farnborough, on 6 June, 1981.

Jasinskyj worked in barracks less than a mile and a half from the murder scene.

The DNA match was made after a sample was taken from Jasinskyj last year when he was arrested for an unconnected minor matter.

This was checked against the national DNA database, and a match was found against the samples from the Marion Crofts murder.

The court heard that the probability of somebody unrelated to Jasinskyj also having a DNA match was one in a billion.