Ex-colleague jailed for murder of Research Now’s Cathy Marlow

UK— Ex-Research Now employee Matthew Fagan has been jailed for life for murdering the online panel firm’s finance manager Cathy Marlow.

Fagan strangled his former colleague after she caught him breaking in to the company’s south London headquarters to steal laptops on Saturday 13 January last year.

Marlow had gone to the office that day to catch up on some work after a holiday. The 28-year-old New Zealander fought desperately for her life in the reception area of the office building when she stumbled across the unemployed American as she left to meet some friends in the afternoon.

Sentencing Fagan to a minimum of 26 years behind bars, Common Serjeant of London Brian Barker said: “Instead of being able to follow her plans to enjoy the rest of her day, Catherine Marlow received a severe beating about the head and she was then strangled with her own scarf and then dumped in an isolated shower cubicle.

“Against a man of your size and strength she would have stood no chance. The signs are that she put up a spirited fight.”

Fagan moved to the UK in 2001. He had worked for Research Now as a web production manager and sat at the next set of desks to Marlow until he was fired in April 2006 for incompetence.

During the Old Bailey trial Fagan had denied murder, claiming he had broken into the office block with two accomplices he had met as he worked cash-in-hand for a removal firm.

Fagan said they had tied up Marlow, which was why his DNA was found under her fingernails. He claimed the other thieves became angry that he had been recognised and told him to leave, at which time, he said, Marlow was alive and well.

Speaking outside court, Detective Chief Inspector Damian Allain said: “He is a fantasist. He used people he knew to provide a framework for reality so he could give descriptions of other people that he said had committed murder.

“It’s always been the prosecution’s case that having been disturbed, he alone murdered Catherine Marlow and then subsequently went on to steal the computers.”

As the guilty verdict was read out in court, Fagan bowed his head while Cathy’s father Bernie, brother Brendan and sister Debbie – who flew in from New Zealand for the trial – wept and held each others’ hands. Cathy’s mother Claire died of cancer two months after her murder.

Author: National News

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