Killer paedo Sidney Cooke, 97, seen for 1st time in 26 years
KILLER paedophile Sidney Cooke is seen for the first time in 26 years — as he prepares for his latest get-out-of-jail bid.
The 97-year-old fiend, set for his 12th parole hearing, has shaved off his beard and sports a bruised head after apparently being attacked.
A source said: “Cooke looks very different now as he is so old and now clean-shaven.
“But there is no mistaking it is him, and he remains the face of evil.
“He has a bruise on his forehead after another inmate apparently hit him with an object.
“Cooke hangs around with other like-minded people in Wakefield, who have committed similar crimes.
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“It is sick but they flock together and it allows Cooke to try to intimidate people.”
The source went on: “He is in no way rehabilitated.
“He still says he is an innocent man and his behaviour inside shows he is still a danger.”
The last picture of Cooke — showing him with a grey and black beard and wearing a blazer and shirt — was taken in 1999.
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He was jailed in 1989 with others for the 1985 killing of Jason Swift, 14, in Hackney, East London.
But he was freed in 1998, sparking uproar before he was taken into voluntary custody for his own safety.
Cooke — suspected of other killings with a network of paedos known as “the dirty dozen” — was jailed for life in 1999 for abusing two brothers in the 1970s.
He is due for an oral hearing in May, a month after he turns 98.
Former Met Police detective Peter Bleksley said: “Cooke should die behind bars.
“The fact he is still well enough to have an argument on a prison wing shows he is still a danger.”
The Parole Board said: “Decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released.”
Gang's two terrifying decades of horror
EVIL Sidney Cooke was in a paedophile gang suspected of abducting and killing 17 boys in the 1970s and 1980s.
The monster used his job as a fairground worker to prey on vulnerable youngsters.
The former farm labourer from Gloucestershire was part of a network based in Hackney, East London, referred to as the “Dirty Dozen”.
Cooke and other members of the gang were jailed in 1989 for the manslaughter of 14-year-old Jason Swift who was abducted and molested after he went missing in July 1985.
His body was found the next year on a farm in Ongar, Essex.
Cooke was also named in court as a ringleader in the death of Mark Tildesley, seven, who vanished in 1984 after going to a funfair in Wokingham, Berks.
Mark’s remains have never been found.
Cooke was also linked to the killing of Barry Lewis, six, of Walworth, South London, in 1985.
His body was found the following year.
'Weazle' hanged
LESLIE ‘Catweazle’ Bailey was among the associates of Cooke to do time for the gang’s sick attacks.
He was convicted in 1992 of killing Mark Tildesley, seven, who was raped in Cooke’s caravan in 1984 — and the murder of Barry Lewis, six, who was abducted in 1985.
Two other lags hanged him at Whitemoor Prison, Cambs, in 1993.
Robert Oliver, now known as Karl Curtis, was another. He served eight years of a 15-year stretch for Jason Swift’s manslaughter.
Stephen Barrell got ten years for the crime and was freed in 1998.