Sidney Cooke

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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 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 19 years in prison, but was paroled in 1998 eight years early after convincing an appeals court that Bailey (who was deceased) 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 in June 1984, 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]

Three of the gang, Cooke, Bailey, and Smith were put to trial in 1991 over Mark's murder but only Bailey was charged as they all blamed each other. He was subsequently himself murdered in prison by two fellow inmates in 1993. 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 was paroled in 1998, causing 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]

In 1999, a year after he was paroled, Cooke was arrested again on 18 sex charges occurring from 1972-1981, 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 1972-73, 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.