Eileen Cotter: Man jailed for killing woman 49 years ago

Eileen Cotter was aged 22 when she was found strangled

A man who strangled a young woman nearly 50 years ago has been jailed for 10 years and six months.

John Apelgren, 80, hit sex worker Eileen Cotter in the face and throttled her before throwing her body out of his car, the Old Bailey heard.

Ms Cotter's partly naked body was discovered outside garages known to be a sex worker haunt near Hamilton Park, Highbury, north London, on 1 June 1974.

Apelgren, of Sydenham, was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter.

Ms Cotter's death came two years after Apelgren sexually assaulted an 18-year-old guest at his own wedding to second wife Ann Apelgren in October 1972.

John Apelgren was found guilty of manslaughter

During the trial prosecutor Alexandra Healy KC told jurors in 2019 former minicab driver Apelgren had come to the attention of police for attacking his third wife.

He accepted a caution for the assault but his DNA was then flagged as a match to the killing, which happened just six weeks after the birth of his first child with his ex-wife Ann.

Apelgren, who was 31 at the time of the killing, declined to give evidence during his trial.

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In addition to being found guilty of manslaughter, he was also convicted of indecent assault.

At the Old Bailey, Mrs Justice May jailed him for 10 years for the killing and a further six months for the earlier assault, to run consecutively.

She told Apelgren that "putting your hands around a young woman's neck and squeezing hard" carried a high risk of death which ought to have been obvious.

The judge added Ms Cotter "must have been terrified".

Eileen Cotter's body was found near a set of garages

In mitigation, Justin Rouse KC listed Apelgren's health problems, saying the defendant would be affected "significantly" by serving his sentence.

Ms Cotter's half-brother Patrick Cotter, who was five at the time of her death, said in a statement: "I was not only deprived of a sister I had little time to get to know, the knock-on effect also meant I lost my mother to suicide and my father to mental illness and alcoholism, all brought about because John Apelgren took Eileen's life."

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