Murder of Mark Tildesley

Mark Tildesley
Born	Mark Anthony Tildesley (1976-08-31)31 August 1976 Berkshire, England
Died	1 June 1984(1984-06-01) (aged 7) Wokingham, Berkshire, England
Cause of death	Murder by drugging, gang rape
Residence	Wokingham, Berkshire
Nationality	British
Ethnicity	White British
Known for	Murder victim
Home town	Wokingham
Parent(s)	John Tildesley Lavinia Tildesley

Mark Anthony Tildesley (31 August 1976 - 1 June 1984) was an English schoolboy who disappeared on 1 June 1984, when he was seven-years-old, whilst visiting a fair in his home town of Wokingham in Berkshire.^[1][2]

In 1990 it emerged that, on the night he disappeared, Tildesley had been abducted, drugged, tortured, raped and murdered by a London-based homosexual paedophile gang, led by Sidney Cooke. Another man named Leslie Bailey was charged with murder in 1991 and was given two life sentences in 1992. He was murdered himself in prison in 1993.^[3][4]

Tildesley's body has never been found and the murder is Wokingham's most notorious unsolved crime.^[5] Thames Valley Police believe that his body is buried in a shallow grave on abandoned farmland.^[6][7]

Background

Half-term holiday

On Friday 25 May 1984, the Palmer C of E Junior School (now All Saints CE (Aided) Primary School) in Norreys Avenue had broken up for its summer half-term holiday. One of its Year 3 pupils was seven-year-old Mark Tildesley.^[5]

The Frank Ayers Funfair, which came to the Carnival Field off Wellington Road in Wokingham four times a year (now the site of the Carnival Pool indoor swimming pool which opened in 1992 and now forms part of the Carnival Leisure Park),^[8] had come again during that holiday week.^[9]

Tildesley was desperate to go but he did not have enough money to do so. His pocket money was only 30p a week, so he supplemented this that week by putting trolleys from Tesco in Denmark Street (now an Argos and a Cleaver restaurant)^[10] back to where they belonged, thus collecting their customers' abandoned 10p deposits.^[9]

Frank Ayers Funfair

At the end of the week, on the afternoon of Friday 1 June 1984, Tildesley had met a Stooping Man outside the Candy Shop in Denmark Street (which has also since closed and which was located a few hundred yards up from the then Tesco site) who gave him a 50p coin to buy some sweets with. The shop assistant who had served Tildesley many times before was surprised as he usually only paid in 10p pieces. The man said that he was going to the fair later that day and that he would pay for him to go on the dodgems that evening.^[9][11]

After eating dinner, at around 5:30pm, Tildelsey left his home in Rose Court, off Rose Street, on his most treasured possession, a second-hand gold Raleigh Tomahawk bike, to make the half-a-mile journey to the fair, which would open at 6pm that evening. He promised to be back home by 7:30pm, saying "Don't worry mum, I won't be late". On his way to the fair, he met with two of his friends who were in the town at the time. However, they wanted to go back home first and then go to the fair later so Tildesley decided to go to the fair alone immediately. This was the last time anyone who knew Tildesley well saw him alive.^[9][11]

Reported missing

At 7:30pm, the time at which Tildesley had promised to return home, he had still not arrived. At 8pm, his parents went down to the fair to find him. However, all they could find was his bike chained to railings near to the entrance of the Carnival Field where the fair was being held.^[9]

Shortly after Tildesley’s disappearance, several witnesses reported seeing a boy which fitted his description being dragged away forcefully against his will towards a car in nearby Langborough Road (where the current Wokingham Library which opened in 1996 now stands) by a Stooping Man between 7pm and 8pm that evening.^[12][11]

Thames Valley Police search

Despite a massive police search, including those of nearby streams, no trace of Tildesley was ever discovered.^[13]

A train driver reported seeing a fox carrying what looked like a child’s arm in its mouth, but this turned out to be animal bones.^[9]

On 7 June 1984 Tildesley's disappearance was mentioned on the first ever episode of the newly launched BBC television series Crimewatch UK, a programme which reconstructs major unsolved crimes with a view to gaining information from members of the public.^[14]

By October 1984, with little new leads to go on, Thames Valley Police started to wind down their investigation into Tildelsey's disappearance.^[5]

On 13 June 1985 Tildesley's disappearance was featured again on the BBC television series Crimewatch UK. A full reconstruction of his last known moments was aired, in which Mrs Tildesley took part.^[15] This brought a huge public response, of 1,200 calls and 2,500 potential leads, but little concrete evidence emerged.^[16][5][17]

Two years after this, on 29 April 1987, it emerged that there had been a number of attempted abductions of young boys over the past six months in the Wokingham area. The police investigated whether these could be linked to Tildesley’s disappearance, but this was eventually dismissed.^[13]

Subsequent events

Operation Orchid

In 1989 the Metropolitan Police established Operation Orchid, an enquiry into the disappearance of missing children.^[18] As part of this operation, in December 1990 they interviewed a convicted East London-based homosexual paedophile gang member called Leslie "Catweazle" Bailey, who had already been charged with two other murders, that of 14-year-old Jason Swift and six-year-old Barry Lewis, both of which occurred after Tildesley’s disappearance.^{[19][20][3][4]}

The police had obtained a hand written paper map and a hand written paper letter which had been given by Bailey to a fellow inmate at Wandsworth Prison. The map showed where Tildesley had been killed, and the letter, which had been written by a cell-mate, was addressed to another gang member called Sidney Cooke, who also knew about his murder.^[3][4]

At this point, Bailey, who suffered from a mild learning disability which meant that he had limited understanding, confessed that his homosexual paedophile gang, whom the police had nicknamed the "Dirty Dozen", led by Cooke, from the Kingsmeade Estate in Hackney, had abducted, drugged, tortured, raped and murdered Tildesley on the night he disappeared. It was at this point that the police realised that the Stooping Man who had been frequently described in connection with his disappearance was in fact Cooke.^[3][4]

"Mark's party"

On the night of Tildesley’s disappearance, Bailey had been asked by another member of the gang, his lover Lennie Smith, to drive him from London to Wokingham, as there would be a party (of child sex abuse) in a caravan owned by Cooke located near to a fair.^[11]

Bailey and Smith then met Cooke and Tildesley at Bailey's white Triumph 2000 car in Langborough Road, near to the fairground. With Bailey driving, Smith was in the front passenger seat, whilst Cooke was holding Tildesley back in the rear of the car. They then met a fourth man, Robert Oliver, at Cooke's blue and white caravan, which had lace curtains. This was located a short drive away past the relocated Tesco in Finchampstead Road (which had opened in 1998), on a field called "The Moors" on Evendons Lane, which is located in between the Finchampstead and Barkham areas of Wokingham.^[11]

After Cooke gave Tildesley a glass of milk laced with muscle relaxant, of which he only drank half of it as he said it "taste's funny", the four men practised non-consensual anal intercourse with Tildesley, starting with Cooke and ending with Smith. After more muscle relaxant was applied directly down the boy's throat, the gang rape started again. Smith then forced a tablet into Tildesley's mouth before grabbing him by the throat. The party, referred to as “Mark’s party” by Bailey, had already lasted for half an hour and Bailey stated he knew at this point that Tildesley was dead as he could not feel a pulse, but that Cooke had told him that he was fine and that he would take the boy home. This meant that it was likely that Tildesley was already dead before his parents even knew that he was missing.^[3]

After the party, Bailey drove Smith back to Hackney, arriving there after midnight. Before Bailey dropped Smith off at marshes, Smith said to Bailey that he would leave the disposal of the body to Cooke.^[11]

Murder charges

On 18 October 1991 Bailey, "together with persons unknown", was charged with the murder of Tildesley.^[21] In October 1992 he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter and one charge of buggery and received two life sentences.^[22] The other three men have never admitted playing any role in Tildesley's murder, despite a tiger keyring identical to the one owned by the boy being found in Cooke's repossessed dark coloured Jaguar XJ car in 1985, a year after his disappearance.^[3][4][23]

No charges were therefore brought against the other three men as the Crown Prosecution Service felt that Bailey’s confession was insufficient evidence for their cases to result in successful convictions.^[4] In addition, the Crown Prosecution Service also declined to prosecute Cooke for Tildesley's murder as he was already in prison for the manslaughter of Jason Swift.^[24]

On 7 October 1993 Bailey was murdered by strangulation with a ligature in Whitemoor Prison in Cambridgeshire.^[25][26] The death was welcomed by the boy's parents.^[25] Mr Tildesley said he would like to shake the murderer’s hand, whilst Mrs Tildesley opened a bottle of wine to celebrate. It later emerged that Bailey had been murdered by two other inmates.^[3][27][28]

Smith has since died of AIDS in a secret unit in Nottingham Prison in 2006.^[23][29]

Unfinished investigation

The police received a "Judge's Commendation" for "pursuing an honourable and sustained investigation" which led to the eventual solving of the Tildesley case. However, the police admitted in public that the case had not been finished as Tildesley's body had not been found.^[30]

The boy's parents kept his bedroom exactly how it was the day he went missing, until Mrs Tildesley moved to nearby Langley Common Road in Barkham (further away than Evendons Lane), shortly after Mr Tildesley’s death in 2006.^[5][30]

Public memorial

Shortly after the boy's disappearance, a public memorial, that of a jade coloured bench, was erected exactly at the very spot where he was last seen alive by the general public. This can be seen directly to the right of the entrance to the Carnival Leisure Park on Wellington Road in Wokingham. A name plate on a plank of wood at the top of the bench reads “In Memory of MARK TILDESLEY”.^[27]

When Mrs Tildesley passed away in 2011, a second name plate was put on the bench, with her name on it, on the plank of wood directly beneath the one with the boy's name plate on, in remembrance of her.^[31]

Body

Tildesley's body has never been found. Bailey claimed he did not know where Cooke had buried the body.^[31] Cooke has indicated he knows where the body is buried, but refuses to tell the police, or the boy's family, the exact location. Following the confession by Bailey to the murder, the police dug up "The Moors" field in Evendons Lane in March 1991, but they did not find anything.^[32][33]

In May 1998 the police refused to re-question Cooke, in relation to Tildesley's murder, and to dig up a nearby golf course to search for his remains.^[34]

In 2008 Cooke's former lover and cell-mate, on-the-run convicted paedophile David Patrick, claimed to know where Cooke had buried the boy, which he would reveal for the sum of £3,000. Police later dismissed the claim as false and an attempt to extort money from Tildelsey's mother.^[35]

In 2012 a fragment of human skull, discovered near Evendons Lane, was found not to be Tildesley's.^[36]

Thames Valley Police believe that his body is buried in a shallow grave on abandoned farmland.^[6][7]

Headstone

A headstone to Tildesley was erected, on 30 January 1993, at the Free Church Burial Ground on Reading Road in Wokingham.^[5]

Book

Tildesley's murder was featured in the 1993 book "Lambs To The Slaughter" by Ted Oliver.^[14]

See also

• List of unsolved murders in the United Kingdom

References

External links

• Spotlight on abuse: The past on trial: Operation Orchid
• The Lost Boys (Operation Orchid BBC documentary, Sidney Cooke etc.)
• Operation Orchid (BBC Crimewatch - 1994)
• The Sidney Cooke Paedophile ring
• BBC Panorama on Sidney Cooke
• WOKINGHAM-Abductions
• TILDESLEY, MARK - MURDER HUNT.