{"id":25560,"date":"2023-06-24T14:29:18","date_gmt":"2023-06-24T18:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=25560"},"modified":"2023-06-24T14:29:18","modified_gmt":"2023-06-24T18:29:18","slug":"man-80-jailed-for-manslaughter-of-woman-he-strangled-nearly-half-a-century-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2023\/06\/24\/man-80-jailed-for-manslaughter-of-woman-he-strangled-nearly-half-a-century-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"Man, 80, jailed for manslaughter of woman he strangled nearly half a century ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

An 80-year-old man has been jailed for manslaughter after strangling a young woman nearly half a century ago.<\/p>\n

John Apelgren has been convicted after his DNA was flagged as a match in the historical case when he was cautioned for assaulting his third wife in 2019.<\/p>\n

The case of Eileen Cotter’s death had been reopened in 2012 when DNA was extracted from her body and compared with a then-prime suspect who was ruled out.<\/p>\n

Apelgren hit Ms Cotter, who was a sex worker, in the face and throttled her before throwing her body out of his car, the Old Bailey heard.<\/p>\n

Her partly naked body was found on 1 June 1974 outside garages known to be a sex worker haunt.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old’s death in Islington, north London, came two years after Apelgren sexually assaulted an 18-year-old guest at his own wedding to second wife Ann in October 1972.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Alexandra Healy KC had told jurors the incident only came to light years later when police interviewed Ann Apelgren as part of the re-investigation into Ms Cotter’s death in 2012.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Eileen<\/div>
Eileen Cotter<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The trail went cold for seven more years until 2019, when former minicab driver Apelgren came to the attention of police for attacking his third wife.<\/p>\n

He accepted a caution for the assault and his DNA was flagged as a match to the historical killing, which happened just six weeks after the birth of his first child with his ex-wife Ann.<\/p>\n

She went on to reveal to investigators he had mistreated her too – and once applied force to her neck with both of his hands.<\/p>\n

Apelgren, from Sydenham, south London, declined to give evidence in his trial.<\/p>\n

He was acquitted of murder but found guilty of manslaughter and indecent assault.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Mrs Justice May jailed him at the Old Bailey for 10 years for the killing and a further six months for the earlier assault to run consecutively.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"TheThe garages in Islington, north London, where the body of Eileen Cotter was found in 1974<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ms Cotter’s death led to the breakdown of her parents’ relationship and her five-year-old brother Patrick Cotter was taken into care.<\/p>\n

In his statement, he said: “No-one ever spoke to me about my sister’s death. I have no memory of her funeral.<\/p>\n

“I have no idea where she was laid to rest… As a result of the traumatic event during my childhood I shut down emotionally. It’s made it difficult for me to form close relationships.<\/p>\n

“I only have very faint memories of my sister but I believe she cared for me.”<\/p>\n

He concluded: “To sum it up in simple terms, the impact of Eileen’s killing had on my life: 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.<\/p>\n

“I would like to see justice for Eileen whose life was cruelly cut short 49 years ago.”<\/p>\n

Source: \u00a0\"Sky<\/a> news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An 80-year-old man has been jailed for manslaughter after strangling a young woman nearly half a century ago. John Apelgren has been convicted after his DNA was flagged as a match in the historical case […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[1397,9539,4602,9538,1240,9540],"class_list":{"0":"post-25560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-uk","9":"tag-dna","10":"tag-eileen-cotter","11":"tag-islington","12":"tag-john-apelgren","13":"tag-old-bailey","14":"tag-sydenham","15":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25560"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25563,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25560\/revisions\/25563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}