 |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page Sidney Cooke contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
|
Sidney Charles Cooke (born 18 April 1927) is an English child molester and probable serial killer serving two life sentences for sexual offences against children. He was nicknamed "Hissing Sid" by colleagues and "Hannibal Lecter" by police and termed "Britain's most notorious paedophile" by The Guardian.
Biography edit
Cooke worked as a fairground worker, which gave him the opportunity to travel the country and lure children. He was a member of the "Dirty Dozen", a group of child molesters led by Cooke and self-confessed serial killer Leslie Bailey. Cooke would lure boys back to his East London flat, where they would be tranquilised and gang-raped in group orgies. The gang is suspected of abducting, raping and murdering nine boys.
On 1 June 1984, seven-year-old Mark Tildesley disappeared while visiting a funfair in Woking, Berkshire. To this day he has never been located. Witnesses said they saw him leave with a male suspect termed "the Stooping Man". A sketch of the Stooping Man was distributed and identified as Sidney Cooke; however, Cooke claimed to have been working at a different funfair and his alibi could not be disproved, so he could not be charged.
In November 1985, 14-year-old Jason Swift was abducted in Hackney by the Dirty Dozen. Members of the gang paid £5 each to rape him, before strangling him. His body was found in Ongar, Essex. During the investigation, Cooke was arrested for attempting to entice children into his car. Several other members of the Dirty Dozen – Bailey, Cooke’s boyfriend Robert Oliver and Lennie Smith – also came under suspicion due to being suspected child molesters. Bailey was brought in for interrogation and implicated Cooke and Oliver, claiming to have seen them removing Swift’s body from the flat. Bailey, Cooke and Oliver were all remanded in custody.
A week later, six-year-old Barry Lewis was found dead. His murder was linked to that of Smith, as both had been tranquilised, raped and strangled. Bailey began bragging to his cellmate Ian Gabb about killing Lewis and Swift, and also mentioned Mark Tildesley. A fourth man, Steven Barrell, was implicated by Bailey’s confession. Gabb informed police, who placed him in a cell with Oliver, then with Cooke, to probe them for details. Both of them admitted to participating in Swift’s murder when pressed for details by Gabb. Both also referenced Mark Tildesley and Barry Lewis. Barrell was arrested, and all four men were charged with the murders. However, charges for Lewis and Tildesley’s murders were dropped due to lack of evidence and they were only charged with Swift’s murder. Cooke was sentenced to 19 years imprisonment.
Bailey admitted to Barry Lewis’s murder in 1989 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He also confessed that the Dirty Dozen had raped and killed Mark Tildesley. According to Bailey, Cooke had in fact been the Stooping Man and had lured Tildesley into his trailer under the promise of a bag of sweets. Cooke had then drugged Tildesley with muscle relaxant and Cooke, Bailey, Lennie Smith and a fourth man referred to as “Odd Bod” (who had the mental age of an eight-year-old) had raped him until he seemingly died from unknown causes likely linked to the drugs Cooke had given him. Cooke had then been given the body to dispose of. Despite the confession implicating Cooke and Smith, only Bailey was charged because the case relied too heavily on his testimony. Cooke’s sentence was reduced to 16 years on the grounds that Bailey’s testimony implicated him as the leader of the gang and he was paroled in 1998.
In 1999, Cooke was re-arrested, charged with 18 historic sexual offences unearthed by a Channel 4 documentary. The charges included raping a young woman and repeatedly raping and molesting two brothers in the 1970s and 1980s. Eight of the charges were left on file, but he pleaded guilty to the ten remaining counts relating to the sexual abuse of the two brothers. On 17 December 1999 Cooke received two life sentences. He has been denied parole ten times since his sentencing and is still in prison.