UK UK - Mark Tildesley, 7, Wokingham, Berkshire, 1 June 1984

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Mark Tildesley

Mark Anthony Tildesley (31 August 1976 – 1 June 1984) was an English schoolboy who disappeared, at the age of seven, on 1 June 1984, whilst visiting a fair in his home town of Wokingham in Berkshire.[1][2]

A widespread search was promptly conducted in the Wokingham area, involving both police officers and British Army soldiers, but no trace of Tildesley was ever discovered.[3]

As part of the investigation, a national poster campaign was launched, with one displayed in every police station in the country. Tildesley's disappearance was publicised in the local Wokingham Times and also featured prominently in national newspapers. The Times, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror all covered the story, and the case appeared in ITV's Thames News. The disappearance was mentioned on the first ever episode of BBC Crimewatch UK in 1984 and a full reconstruction was aired on the same programme a year later. Despite a huge public response, however, these efforts brought little concrete evidence.[4]

In 1989, Tildesley's disappearance was linked to the Operation Orchid investigation into missing children. As part of this operation, in 1990, it emerged that on the night he disappeared, Tildesley had been abducted, drugged, tortured, raped and murdered by a London-based paedophile gang, led by Sidney Cooke. Another man named Leslie Bailey was charged with murder in 1991 and the following year was given two life sentences. He was murdered in prison in 1993.[5]
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Half-term holiday

On 25 May 1984, the Palmer Junior School had broken up for its summer half-term holiday.[7]

The Frank Ayers Fun Fair, which came to the Carnival Field off Wellington Road in Wokingham four times a year (now the site of the indoor swimming pool which opened in 1992 and now forms part of the Carnival Leisure Park),[9] had come again during that holiday week.[10][clarification needed]

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 by putting trolleys from Tesco in Denmark Street (now an Argos and a Cleaver restaurant)[11] back to where they belonged, thus collecting their customers' abandoned 10p deposits.[10]

Frank Ayers Fun Fair

At the end of the week, on the afternoon of 1 June 1984, Tildesley had met a man outside the Candy Shop in Denmark Street (which has also since closed and which was located 20 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, Margaret Hickman, thought it was odd 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.[10][12]

After eating dinner, at just after 5:30 pm, Tildesley left his home at Number 1 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 7:30 pm, 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.[10][12]

Reported missing

At 7:30 pm, the time at which Tildesley had promised to return home, he had still not arrived. At 8:00 pm, 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.[10]

Having spent an hour searching around the fairground site to no avail, Tildesley's parents returned home with his bike, to find his brother Christopher watching television but no trace of their missing son.[4]

At 10:00 pm, Lavinia Tildesley phoned the local police, to report Tildesley missing and to ask if they had heard anything, but they had not and they recommended she phone back in an hour. In the meantime, she phoned his sister Christina in Finchampstead, and Christina's husband Ted also went over to the Carnival Field to search for him without any success.[4]
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National appeals

Shortly after Tildesley's disappearance, several witnesses reported seeing a boy who fitted his description being dragged away forcefully against his will away from the fairground site by a Stooping Man between 7pm and 8pm that evening. Further sightings were at the nearby Cockpit Footpath on the corner of Denmark Street and Langborough Road as well as at Number 9 and Number 51 Langborough Road.[12][13]

There were also a number of conflicting sightings too.

Murder of Mark Tildesley - Wikipedia

 

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Initial investigation

On 7 June 1984, the day of the first Crimewatch UK appeal, two anonymous calls came in to say that they suspected a fairground worker called Martin Earley was responsible for Tildesley's disappearance. He had worked for Frank Ayers for eleven years and was at the Wokingham Fun Fair on the night Tildesley went missing. He was arrested and confessed to Tildesley's abduction, saying that he had raped and murdered him at his caravan nearby, which fitted in with what a hypnotist had said was likely to have happened to Tildesley. However, he changed his story so many times that it became unreliable and detectives worked out that they had in fact got the wrong man.[4]
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On 16 August 1984, the Metropolitan Police called on another fairground worker, Sidney Cooke, at his home in London. One of his colleagues had alerted detectives at the Tildesley incident office about his suspicious behaviour towards young boys in the past. The police asked Cooke whether he was in Wokingham on the night Tildesley had vanished. He denied this and had an alibi. He claimed that he was working at a fair opposite West Hendon Police Station in London that night, and the fair owner, Rosie Gray, confirmed that Cooke was her employee. Cooke therefore remained on file but was eliminated as a suspect.[4]

By October 1984, with little new leads to go on, Thames Valley Police started to wind down their investigation into Tildelsey's disappearance.[7]

Two-and-a-half years after this, on 29 April 1987, it emerged that there had been a number of attempted abductions of young children over the past six months in the Wokingham area.
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Operation Orchid

In 1989, the Metropolitan Police established Operation Orchid, an enquiry into the disappearance of missing children. This was led by Detective Chief Superintendent Roger Stoodley.[19] As part of this operation, in December 1990, they interviewed a convicted East London-based 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.[5][6][20][21]

The police had obtained a hand-drawn 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 Sidney Cooke, who was also another gang member, and who also knew about his murder.[5][6]

At this point, Bailey, who suffered from a mild learning disability which meant that he had limited understanding, confessed that his paedophile gang, whom the police had nicknamed the "Dirty Dozen", led by Cooke, from the Kingsmead 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.[5][6]

Murder of Mark Tildesley - Wikipedia

 

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"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 Hackney to Wokingham, as there would be a party (of child sex abuse) in a caravan owned by Cooke located near to a fair.[12]

Upon arriving in Wokingham, Smith went into the fair to find Cooke and they came back to Bailey's white Triumph 2000 car in Langborough Road, near to the fairground, with a young boy who was "dragging back", despite being enticed away from the fairground on the promise of a 50p bag of sweets. The young boy, Tildesley, had to be physically picked up and forced into the back of the car to get him in. 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, a relative of Bailey's known as "Odd Bod", (who had a mental age of an eight-year-old), 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 Finchampstead and Barkham.[12] After Cooke gave Tildesley a glass of milk laced with muscle relaxant, of which he only drank half of it as he said it "tastes funny", the four men raped 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.[5]

After the murder of Tildesley, 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.[12]

Murder of Mark Tildesley - Wikipedia

 

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Unfinished investigation

Tildesley is the "Dirty Dozen" ring's first known murder victim. However, in 2015, following media and political pressure, the police re-opened the case of 29 July 1981 murder of seven-year-old Vishal Mehrotra near East Putney tube station in London. The "Dirty Dozen" gang are being investigated in relation to this killing, which was more than three years earlier than the murder of Tildesley.[24]

Also in 2015, former Chief Superintendent Roger Stoodley said he feared a "cover up" by the Metropolitan Police over the Tildesley murder case itself. He maintained that there was sufficient evidence to prosecute Cooke over Tildesley's killing.[25]

Police started investigating Sidney Cooke's potential involvement with the unsolved murders of nine other boys in 2015.[26]

Murder of Mark Tildesley - Wikipedia

 

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Mark Tildesley - Google Search

 

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Inside the world of paedophile Sidney Cooke and the Dirty Dozen sex ring who used 'children as their meat'

Sidney Cooke was said to be the leader of a child sex ring, known as the Dirty Dozen, who are suspected of abusing and killing young boys
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And police fear the child sex ring, which came to be known as the Dirty Dozen could be responsible for deaths of other young boys who disappeared in the 1980s.

Cooke is set to die in prison after being given two life sentences for sexual abuse, after he was released from prison having served his sentence for the manslaughter of Jason Swift, 14.
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Cooke is suspected of leading the Dirty Dozen, supplying boys for establishment figures. He is believed to have lured vulnerable boys to his flat in Hackney, east London, then tortured and killed them, charging Dirty Dozen members £5 each to rape them.

It has also been alleged that he supplied young boys - called 'chickens' by the gang - for establishment figures to abuse.

The disappearance of Mark

On 1st June 1984, seven-year-old Mark Tildesley went off to the funfair in his home town of Wokingham. He was a youngster who, living in an area that was considered safe, had a relative amount of freedom and was allowed out to play with his friends.

He was wearing a distinctive jacket with a tiger emblem on the back and went to the fairground at around 5.30pm, heading straight for the dodgems.
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However when they spoke to one shop worker, an image of a suspect emerged.

Officers spoke to a woman who worked in the sweet shop who had served Mark on the day he had gone missing. The seven-year-old was a regular visitor to the sweet shop, always using the 10p pieces he got for pocket money. However this time he paid with a 50 pence piece - leading to the woman remembering him that day. She then said she saw him walk off with a middle aged man with a stoop.

Police created a sketch from this description, a man carrying a plastic bag, who became known as the 'stooping man'.

Jason Swift's body discovered

The next year, in July 1985, 14-year-old Jason Swift went missing from Hackney in London. Jason apparently spent a lot of time away from a loving family home, sending his parents postcards from many of the coastal destinations he visited.

But suddenly the postcards stopped.

In November 1985 his body was found buried in a farm in Ongar in Essex. The teenager was naked and had been sexually assaulted.

Emma Whiteman, Jason's cousin, tells the programme: "That day sticks with me all my life. How has he gone from a major city to a forest? Obviously someone had put him there - but why was he put there? How was he killed?"
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At this point Leslie Bailey was questioned and he let slip he had seen a boy, who he believed to be dead in a flat. He also claimed Cooke and Oliver had removed his body from the building.

Barry Lewis found dead at the age of six

A week later a second body was found - six-year-old Barry Lewis, who had disappeared from south London after being snatched on 15 September. He had also been sexually abused before being killed.

As similarities between the two boys were drawn - both had the same tranquilisers in their bodies when they were killed - Operation Stranger was launched.

David Bright added: "There were so many similarities. Whoever was responsible for killing Jason obviously had involvement in Barry's demise."
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Bailey, who was known by the nickname Catweazle, confessed to Jason's manslaughter and was sent to prison. But there was not enough evidence for charges against the other two men.

However once inside, he began to talking to his cellmate, convicted paedophile Ian Gabb who told officers Bailey talked of being involved in multiple cases of murder. He also mentioned Mark Tildesley.
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Bragging to a cell mate
Police still needed more evidence.
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"Another area that was discovered was the trade in the victims. You have got a boy, you have done what you want to do with him, you have shared him around with your friends, and then you would pass him on to someone else. They are sold on.

"Eyes were being opened there with associations that dealt solely with this perverted awfulness of sex with children and people advertising i am looking for this type of boy, freckles, and red hair, or I want this type of boy. They became their meat."

(much more at link)
Inside world of paedophile Sidney Cooke and sex ring that used 'kids as meat'

 

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Sidney Cooke - Sidney Cooke | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

 

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'Evil' paedophile could be released from prison at age of 94

The Murder of Mark Tildesley

 

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There is perhaps another eyebrow raising element to this case. On 13th December 1994, the Guardian newspaper wrote that Mark Tildesley's mother Lavinia had been close friends with William Malcolm.

William Malcolm was Leslie Bailey's brother in law, a convicted paedophile in his own right, he had bragged of being at Jason Swift's murder and was subsequently shot and killed on his doorstep in 2000. If indeed it is true that Mark's mother was friends with Malcolm then it raises all kinds of questions about what exactly was going on, and whether Mark was in some kind of situation similar to poor Christopher Laverack, who was abused and murdered in the 1980s by his uncle, but appears to have been subject to prolonged abuse.

Interestingly, another of Leslie Bailey's brother in laws, Richard Rawlinson, was convicted in 1989 for abusing an underage girl on the Thamesmead Estate. It does make you wonder what exactly was going on in Bailey's family (and of course Bailey has numerous convictions in the 70s for attacks on women and girls). Sadly, we know that child sex abuse is not uncommon in chaotic families, and it seems that Malcolm had quite a wide network.