The secret life of mum who became a loan shark and killer

NOW SHE'S FACING LENGTHY JAIL TERM

- by ANDREW BARDSLEY

TO an onlooker, Jemma Marshall appeared to be living an ordinary, suburban existence.

A mother-of-three children with a partner, she combined domestic life with work to pay the bills and provide for her family.

Shaw, a small town north of Oldham where she and her family lived, bordering the rolling hills of Saddleworth, is popular with commuters heading into Manchester using the Metrolink.

But, like many other places, it has a seedy, dark underbelly, hidden from public view.

Marshall's extraordinary descent into this seedy, ordinarily hidden world is a classic example of how drugs can destroy lives.

After falling into drug addiction, she has now fallen even further.

Convicted of manslaughter alongside a man named Jason Wadsworth, she faces a lengthy sentence.

Their victim, 45-year-old Martin Shaw, was a vulnerable addict, he was used and abused by those around him.

Marshall, who claimed to have an emotional connection with Shaw, was in reality another of his abusers.

A loan shark, she would lend money to the destitute, but expected inflated interest payments on top.

And when he failed to meet her demands, Shaw was brutally attacked by both Marshall and Wadsworth, both 37.

Wadsworth acted as Marshall's muscle as she called in her debt.

In court, fighting for her freedom, Marshall recalled how she made the extraordinary descent from family life to drug addiction.

Now, she has become a killer.

"Prior to my breakdown I worked all my life," Marshall said. She'd worked for a charity, been employed as a carer for a woman with multiple sclerosis and volunteered for the British Red Cross.

She'd returned to her studies, training in accounts.

Marshall had her first child aged 17. She had experienced a troubled childhood herself and was struggling with processing trauma she'd experienced in that period.