Sidney Cooke Paedophile Child Killer, has failed in his most recent attempt to be released from prison at the age of 96 following the Parole Board’s decision that he still poses a “very high risk of serious harm to children.”
The horrifying sex offender and child killer was informed today that his appeal to be granted parole has been denied, and he will also not be sent to an open jail.
Keeping Sidney Cooke behind bars means the killer of 14-year-old Jason Swift will spend at least a further two years in jail – putting him among the oldest inmates in the UK.
His most recent unsuccessful release request, which marks his eleventh overall since being qualified for parole in 2004, indicates he will remain in a Category A jail under stringent security policies.
Psychiatrists and others who worked with Sidney Cooke in jail informed the Parole Board in a devastating description of his ongoing threat to society that they could not advise his release.
“The panel heard that Mr Sidney Cooke is assessed as presenting a very high risk of serious harm to children, a high risk of serious harm to the public and that he is a high risk of committing a further sexual offence,” the written Parole Board summary states. Witnesses disagreed with Mr Sidney Cooke’s release or advancement to an open prison.
The synopsis goes on: “The panel looked over Mr. Sidney Cooke’s probation officer’s release plan and balanced its recommendations against evaluated risks.”
The scheme called for Mr Sidney Cooke to live in approved accommodation and impose tight restrictions on his connections, travel, and activities.
The panel decided that this strategy lacked sufficient strength to control Mr. Sidney Cooke inside the community.
The panel decided that Mr Sidney Cooke was not fit for release after weighing the facts of his offending against his progress made while in detention.
The panel also advised the Secretary of State against sending Mr. Sidney Cooke to an open jail.
The panel decided Mr Sidney Cooke was suitably in custody where exceptional risk could be controlled. He will be qualified for still another parole review in due course.
Although Sidney Cooke had not finished all the courses, the three-person parole panel was informed he had participated in specific approved programmes addressing his sexual offences.
Though he served his minimum term 19 years ago, Sidney Cooke, from Hackney, east London, will remain in maximum security penitentiary Wakefield Prison, West Yorkshire.
Over the death of 14-year-old Jason Swift, he was found guilty of manslaughter in 1989.
1989 saw Leslie Bailey, Robert Oliver, Steven Barrell imprisoned for Jason’s manslaughter as well.
Cooke was also mentioned in court as the leader of a paedophile ring connected to the disappearance of seven-year-old Mark Tildesley in 1984. His remains are still nowhere to be located.
Suspected of the abduction and murder of seventeen youths in the 1970s and 1980s, Sidney Cooke and his gang A lot of these still unresolved.
Called the “Dirty Dozen,” Sidney Cooke’s crew went under the nickname “Hissing Sid.”
Operating from a flat on the Kingsmead estate in Hackney, east London, the group hired rent boys or kidnapped youngsters off the streets and subjected them to sexual torment.
Preying on weaker children, Sidney Cooke traversed the nation setting up his children’s Test Your Strength machine in fairgrounds and used this as a means of luring boys before drugging them and subjecting them to horrific attacks.
Following nine years for the manslaughter of young Jason Swift in 1985, Sidney Cooke was released from prison in April 1999.
He was promptly placed into voluntary custody for his protection following his discharge. Still, detectives kept his case open even though they knew he was accountable for other comparable unsolved crimes.
Within months of working on fairgrounds more than thirty years ago, Sidney Cooke was accused of mistreating two teenage boys he befriended. He also claimed to have raped a young woman.
During his 1999 trial at Manchester Crown Court, Sidney Cooke unexpectedly altered his plea from innocent to guilty and confessed ten charges against the children, therefore earning two life sentences.
On the court file were left four charges of rape, three of indecent assault, and one of buggery.
Through his relationship with Dirty Dozen members Leslie Bailey, Robert Oliver, and Steven Barrell, Cooke has been connected to some of the most horrible child sex murders of the past fifty years.
In 1992 Bailey was found guilty of the manslaughter of seven-year-old Mark Tildesley, who was raped in Cooke’s caravan while attending a fairground close to Wokingham, Berkshire, in 1984.
Bailey was also found guilty of killing six-year-old Barry Lewis, who had been kidnapped in June 1991 before being gang raped by up to eight men.
Sidney Cooke remains imprisoned. Oliver was last reported to be residing in a bail hostel in Guildford, Surrey; Bailey was killed in his jail cell in 1993. It is unknown where Barrell is.
Ex-detective David Bright, who got Sidney Cooke to confess to the murder of Jason Swift, advised police to question Cooke over unresolved killings in March.
Mr Bright argues Sidney Cooke’s age could lead him to “clear his conscience” even though he does not feel Cooke should be released from prison.
Former Essex Police officer Mr Bright told The Mirror that there are additional children buried around the nation who might have been the product of Sidney Cooke and his former allies.
At 96 and with all but two gang members gone, he might wish to atone and confess all.
A Parole Board spokesman said: “We can confirm that following an oral hearing, a panel of the Parole Board denied Sidney Sidney Cooke’s release.” The panel also turned down suggestions for an open prison.
“Parole Board decisions are just concerned with what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.”
Considered as a violent and predatory paedophile, Sidney Cooke still poses a continual threat to children even at the age of seventy-two.
For a series of crimes involving the methodical rape and abuse of two brothers over several years, he has been sentenced to two life terms.
These horrifying revelations, however, are only one of a string of heinous deeds the habitual offender has carried out during the past three decades.
Working as a carnival worker, Cooke was able to travel the nation hunting young people who were especially susceptible.
Known by friends as Hissing Sid, he put up his children’s “Test Your Strength” machine at fairgrounds all throughout the nation using the chance to meet boys and entice them into sadistic gay orgies.
He would drug the youngsters before exposing them to cruel attacks with his sick cronies Robert Oliver, Lennie Smith, and Leslie Bailey.
One of a 1980s gang thought to have killed up to nine young boys during sex orgies, Cooke routinely wore a dirty suit and trilby hat.
Operating out of a flat on the Kingsmead estate in Hackney, east London, the group hired rent boys or kidnapped children off the streets and subjected them to terrible sexual torment.
The former farm worker oversaw the paedophile ring imprisoned for 1984 killing 14-year-old Jason Swift from Hackney, East London.
Each of the band of men paid £5 to have sex with Jason at the “stinking, filthy” Kingsmead flat.
A few hours later, he was dead. His body turned out in a shallow grave outside of London.
“Evil man.”
Involved in the hunt for the killers of the adolescent, Detective Superintendent David Bright remarked: “I can’t think of anything worse that could happen to a human being and a vulnerable young man.”
“Cooke is a rather harsh and hard man. Though a wicked man, he is a really strong character.
Originally sent to jail for 19 years in 1989 for Jason’s manslaughter, Cooke was released after just nine in 1998 after appeal court judges lowered his sentence to 16 years.
Leslie Bailey was the evil genius, the mastermind behind the group, he persuaded the judges.
But Bailey called Cooke one of the assailants of seven-year-old Mark Tildesley, who disappeared in June 1984.
Mark vanished following a funfair close by Wokingham, Berks.
Although his bike was retrieved close by, no trace of him has ever been located. Police say Cooke drew him from the fair with the promise of a 50p bag of sweets, then tortured and killed him in a trailer by his gang.
Although Cooke has said he knows where Mark’s body is buried, he has not disclosed to authorities or the bereaved parents exactly where his grave is.
The Crown Prosecution Service turned down prosecuting Cooke for Mark’s murder in 1991.
Other paedophiles in London’s Wandsworth prison respected Cooke for the degree of his wickedness and the lengths he was ready to go to capture his victims.
His release from prison last year was greeted with angry demonstrations, and he was compelled to keep on the run upon the discovery of his name.
At last, at his own request, he resided in a suite of three cells at Yeovil police station in Somerset, where the Home Office supplied a TV, washing machine, microwave and tiny cooker.
Nearly a year after his parole, Thames Valley Police officers looking at claims of rape and other severe sexual assaults which had surfaced following the Channel 4 series, Dispatches, Cooke was detained at the police station.
NSPCC head Jim Harding remarked on his sentence: “The children who Sidney Cooke assaulted suffered some of the vilest and cruellest sex offences conceivable.
“After serving his last sentence, he ought never have been released. We truly hope he won’t be given the chance to inflict more damage on another child.
If you or anyone you know have been affected by the people highlighted in this article, then please report those individuals to the Police on 101 (999 if an emergency) or visit their online resources for further details of the options for reporting a crime. You can also make a report at Crimestoppers should you wish to be completely anonymous. There is help available on our support links page.