As a fairground worker, he used his position to lure young boys and later was part of a disgusting paedophile ring operating out of the Kingsmead housing estate in Hackney, East London. After he was convicted of manslaughter following the death of 14-year-old Jason Swift, he was locked behind bars but was released early in 1998, sparking national outrage.

However, he was later re-arrested after more evidence of his sickening crimes came to light following a Channel 4 documentary. In 1999 he received two life sentences for 18 offences relating to the abuse of two young brothers between 1972 and 1981. Despite applying for parole on a number of occasions, he has been denied 10 times, and at 94, is currently one of the oldest inmates in the prison sentence.
Cooke was originally born in Gloucestershire, although his job as a fairground worker allowed him to travel around the UK where he was able to abuse children without being caught. By the 1970s, he and a group of twelve paedophiles began working together to hire rent boys and abduct young children from the streets.

Nicknamed the “Dirty Dozen”, the group had acquired a flat in Hackney by the mid-1980s, where they drugged their victims before raping and abusing them in group orgies. In November 1986, Cooke led the group to pay 14-year-old Jason Swift £5 for what the media said was a “homosexual orgy”.

He was killed and his body was later found in a shallow grave by a dog walker, leading the Met Police to launch an investigation which identified Cooke and three of his accomplices. Despite being originally charged with murder, he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced at the Old Bailey to 19 years in prison.

Despite only being jailed for his role in the one killing, he was suspected in being involved in two other murders that had occurred around the same period. His other accomplices told the police that Cooke played a part in the murder of Mark Tildesley, a seven-year-old boy who was murdered in Wokingham in June 1984.

One fellow paedophile, Leslie Bailey, alleged that Cooke had lured the young boy away from a funfair by promising him a bag of sweets. The CPS decided against pressing charges, as he was already in prison for manslaughter and only Bailey was jailed for his role.

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