Christopher Barlow jailed for 20 years for murdering Mariann Borocz

Earlier today (Friday 29th August) a judge at Manchester Crown Court sentenced Mr Barlow (born 1st January 1963) to life in prison with a minimum of 20 years for the murder of Mariann Borocz. Mr Barlow, 62-years-old, will be in his 80s when finishing the sentence.

Ms Borocz was a 55-year-old from Hungary. It remains unknown exactly how she died, or even how she knew Mr Barlow. She was last seen at 9.30am on 14th December 2024 walking with Mr Barlow to his home on Pedder Street. They had just bumped into each other in the shops minutes earlier.

Ms Borocz was reported missing the next day (15th December 2024) by her family. As part of police efforts to find her, Mr Barlow was spoken to by police on 21st December 2024, but he denied having any knowledge of her whereabouts, or having ever met her.

A couple of days later on 23rd December 2024 police officers arrested Mr Barlow and found Ms Borocz's naked body in his shed. Her clothes, along with other possessions such as her handbag and passport, were found in Mr Barlow's bins.

Mr Barlow was completely uncooperative with police at the time of his arrest, refusing to hand over the keys to his shed and claiming his mobile phone had been stolen.

Further evidence collected by Greater Manchester Police indicated that Mr Barlow had tried to cover up the death, not only by hiding Ms Borocz in the shed and denying all knowledge, but also cancelling his cleaner and abruptly cancelling plans with friends.

The postmortem could not identify a cause of death, or even any signs of injury that could have potentially caused death. Mr Barlow claimed at Manchester Crown Court that he had simply discovered Ms Borocz dead in the kitchen after inviting her into his home for company. The jury unanimously found Mr Barlow guilty of murder yesterday (Thursday 28th August).