Paedophile child murderer Sidney Cooke, 95, ‘is granted a new appeal in his bid for freedom’

Pedophile child murderer Sidney Cooke has been given ‘a new appeal in his bid for freedom’ after his last 10 requests to the probation commission were all rejected.

Sidney Cooke, 95, a child molester and serial killer, from Stroud, is said to die behind bars.

However, according to the SunCooke will have another hearing next year.

Probation officers have referred his case to them, with a review now underway.

A full hearing is expected to take place early next year, according to sources.

Cooke will be one of the oldest inmates to face the probation commission in recent years.

A result would be released within weeks and could mean he would be released or moved to open prison.

It comes after his tenth attempt at freedom, along with a request to take him to an open prison, was rejected by a probation commission last October.

The probation commission said at the time: “After considering the circumstances of his offence, the progress made while in custody and the other evidence presented … the panel was not convinced that Mr Cooke was fit for release. .. of State that Mr Cooke should be transferred to open prison.”

The document detailing the decision described Cooke, at the time of his offense, as someone who “demonstrated manipulative and controlling behavior for his own satisfaction” and believed he could have sex “as and when he wanted.”

It added: “His behavior in prison was mixed and had sparked concerns and even accusations over the years.”

When he was sentenced to life in prison in 1999, with a minimum term of five years, a judge described Cooke – who is also known by the surname Lomas – as a “highest risk” pedophile and his victims said they hoped he would die. behind bars.

By age 72, he had admitted to a campaign of abuse against two brothers in the 1970s, which began when they were just 13 and lasted five years.

He has also been linked to the unsolved murder of seven-year-old Mark Tildesley, who disappeared in 1984 after visiting a fairground near his home in Wokingham, Berkshire, and is suspected of involvement in the kidnapping and murder of six-year-old Barry Lewis.

The 95-year-old traveled the country hunting vulnerable youth, setting up his children’s Test Your Strength machine at fairgrounds and using it as an opportunity to lure boys before drugging them and exposing them to brutal attacks.

Cooke, dubbed “Hissing Sid,” was part of the “Dirty Dozen,” a sick pedophile gang that abused young boys in the 1980s and was suspected of being responsible for murdering up to nine young boys during sex orgies.

Operating out of a flat on the Kingsmead estate in Hackney, east London, the gang hired rent boys or snatched children off the street and subjected them to sexual torture.

The gang paid £5 each to rape 14-year-old Jason Swift, a schoolboy who disappeared from his East London home in 1985.

In November 1985, Jason’s naked corpse was found on a farm in Essex.

For his role in the murder, Cooke was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 19 years in prison.

Dirty Dozen members Leslie Bailey, Robert Oliver and Steven Barrell were also convicted of Swift’s murder.

Cooke was released from prison in April 1999 after serving nine years.

But after his release, he was immediately voluntarily taken into custody for his own safety. But detectives, convinced he was responsible for other similar unsolved crimes, kept his file open.

A year later, he was arrested again for historically abusing two boys in the 1970s, whom he befriended while working on fairgrounds more than 30 years ago.

He was also charged with raping a young woman.

In an unexpected step during his 1999 trial at Manchester Crown Court, Cooke suddenly changed his plea to guilty, admitting ten offenses against the youths and then serving two life sentences.

Four allegations of rape, another three of indecent assault and one of buggery were left on file.

Bailey was convicted in 1992 of the manslaughter of seven-year-old Mark Tildesley who was raped in Cooke’s caravan in 1984 while visiting a funfair near Wokingham, Berkshire.

He was also convicted of the murder of Barry Lewis, six, who was kidnapped in June 1991 before being sexually assaulted by up to eight men.

Bailey was murdered in his prison cell in 1993, and Oliver was last said to live in a bailout hostel in Guildford, Surrey. Barrell’s whereabouts are unknown.

A spokeswoman for the Parole Board said: ‘Probation has now been referred to the Parole Board by the Secretary of State for Justice and is following standard procedures.

“A hearing is expected to take place early next year.”