Sidney Cooke
Sidney Cooke (also known as Hissing Sid), (born 18 April 1927) is a British convicted paedophile serving two life sentences for a string of rapes against young boys.
Along with three accomplices – Leslie Bailey, Robert Oliver,[1] and Lennie Smith – Cooke was imprisoned in 1989 for the manslaughter of Jason Swift, four years earlier in 1985. Jason was a fourteen year old boy, one of many the gang had brutalized, sexually tortured, and prostituted over a number of years.
Cooke was sentenced to nineteen years in prison. He managed to get his sentence reduced to 16 years and was paroled in 1998, after serving nine years. He convinced an appeals court that Bailey (who was killed in prison in 1993) was the ringleader of the paedophile gang. The gang is believed to have killed at least nine victims.[2]
Bailey had informed authorities that Cooke was among those who murdered a 7-year-old boy called Mark Tildesley, in Wokingham, Berkshire, but his role in the death was not investigated until years later.[3] The boy's body has never been found.
Mark disappeared while visiting a funfair in Wokingham on the evening of Friday 1 June 1984. It was believed he was lured away from the fair by Cooke, who had manned a test your strength machine, on the promise of a 50p bag of sweets. His bicycle was found chained to railings nearby. In his job as a fairground worker the predatory paedophile was able to travel the country preying on vulnerable youngsters and using the opportunity to meet boys and lure them into depraved homosexual orgies. "Cooke is a very hard and resilient man. He's a very strong character but he's an evil man." These were the words of Detective Superintendent David Bright, who was involved in the hunt for the predator. [4]
The Crown Prosecution Service declined to prosecute Cooke for Mark Tildesley's murder as he was already in prison for the manslaughter of Jason Swift. Cooke still refuses to discuss where they disposed of Mark's body after they killed him.
Cooke's parole caused public outrage exacerbated by a plan to move him to a hostel near two schools,[5][6] while police refused to disclose where he was to be moved,[7] smuggling him out of jail to avoid a vigil for his victims.[8] He admitted that he might reoffend.[8]
Cooke after this lived in a suite of cells at Yeovil Police station. On 27 January 1999, Cooke was arrested again on 18 sex charges that occurred between 1972 and 1981 (which included repeated abuse and assault of two boys and a single-instance of rape against a young woman), many of which had come to public attention after they were reported on in the Channel 4 documentary Dispatches (TV series).[9][10] He admitted a string of ten sex attacks against two brothers over several months in 1972 and 1973, but denied the remaining eight charges, which were abandoned by the judge.[10] He blamed sexual abuse he claimed he had suffered as a child. He received two life sentences, with only a five year parole period.[11] Police continued to investigate the killing of Mark. However, even though the five-year parole period has now elapsed, Cooke hasn't been released and it appears almost certain that he never will be.
References
- ^ "Fears over release of pedophile". BBC News. 1998-03-13.
- ^ "Paedophile admits to string of sex attacks". 1999-10-06.
- ^ "Child killer could face new charge". BBC News. 1998-05-17.
- ^ BBC News | UK | Cooke: The predatory paedophile
- ^ "Outrage as child sex beast moves in near schools". 1998-04-19.
- ^ "Protesters force cops to move sex killer". 1998-04-20.
- ^ "Secret meeting on home for paedophile". BBC News. 1998-04-22.
- ^ a b "Child killer moved ahead of vigil". BBC News. 1998-04-06.
- ^ "Man in court on 14 sex charges". 1998-04-21.
- ^ a b "Paedophile admits child sex acts". BBC News. 1999-10-05.
- ^ "Notorious paedophile begins life sentence". BBC News. 1999-12-17.
External links
- Cooke: The predatory paedophile from BBC News
- Protests and riots over Cooke from BBC News