OLD MAN GUILTY OF 1974 HIGHBURY MURDER AFTER DNA BREAKTHROUGH
A pensioner has been found guilty of the manslaughter of a woman killed almost half a century ago.John Apelgren, 80, was found guilty on Friday (June 16) of killing 22-year-old Eileen Cotter in Highbury in 1974.
Eileen, who lived in north London and was a sex worker, was found strangled in a garage courtyard behind Hamilton Park on June 1, 1974.
Apelgren told police at the time that he was living in Leyton, and never went to the Finsbury Park and Highbury area.
But after a DNA breakthrough, police were able to charge Apelgren with murder and the indecent assault of another woman in 1972.
The charges were brought after he was arrested in February 2019 for domestic assault.
After admitting this offence, a DNA match was found to samples recovered from Eileen’s body in 1974.
At Apelgren’s trial, the prosecution told the court he had sex with Eileen before killing her and leaving her partially undressed by the garages.
The 80-year-old had previously admitted to having sex with Eileen, but not to killing her.
A jury later found him not guilty of the murder, instead convicting him of manslaughter.
The pensioner was also found guilty of the indecent assault of an 18-year-old woman at his own wedding in 1972.
The woman reported the assault after being interviewed as part of the investigation into Eileen’s death.
Detective Chief Inspector Laurence Smith stated that Eileen tragically died young, with her body discarded on the street, and that although the investigation was thorough at the time, science advancements eventually led to his arrest decades later.
Apelgren is due to be sentenced on June 23.
