Eileen Cotter died in 1974

AN octogenarian is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of a 50-year-old murder.

John Apelgren denies murdering Eileen Cotter, a sex worker, in 1974.

He is now 80 but was 31 and with a newborn baby at the time of the woman’s death.

A jury was told Ms Cotter, 22, was found dead with her underwear and tights tangled around her ankle and her lower body exposed on the ground outside a row of garages in Hamilton Park, Finsbury Park.

The prosecution allege Mr Apelgren had sex with her before strangling her and pushing her body out of his car.

His DNA was found on her body, the court has been told.

Alexandra Healy KC, prosecuting, said: “Eileen Cotter did not have the defendant’s DNA on her underwear and tights because she never pulled them up after he had sex with her. She never pulled them up apparently because she was dead.”

A second charge of sexual assault was brought against the former bricklayer and taxi driver which he also denies.

This was added after his former wife, Anne Smythe, reported a separate incident during an interview with police in 2019.

She told detectives that a guest at her wedding to Mr Apelgren in 1972 came forward decades later to accuse him of attempting a sexual assault.

She has told the court that she filed for divorce days after he also attacked her.

Mr Apelgren’s defence barrister Justin Rouse KC suggested these incidents did not happen.

The trial continues.