We watched Mark [Tildesley] cycling off to the fair. That was the last day anyone ever saw Mark. Child Snatchers: A Day at the Fair I: The Stooping Man, father, Channel 5 2024
It’s truly horrific what these people have done. ibid. comments
Mark Tildesley was last seen at Wokingham Fair. Police have to assume they are looking for his body. ibid.
Gangs of paedophiles preying on young people. ibid.
Pure terror. Pure evil. ibid.
Seven weeks into the investigation police received information about a fairground worker called Sidney Cooke. ibid.
Identification of the body. It was a young lad called Jason Swift. ibid. rozzer, Chapter 2: The Lost Boys
Sidney Cooke became a person of interest but there was just not enough evidence. ibid. author
Six days after Jason’s body was found there was more shocking news. Only six miles away in a field the body of a six-year-old boy was found. The six-year-old boy was Barry Lewis. ibid.
Both boys had been drugged with the same tranquillizer. ibid.
Sidney Cooke, following on from the incident in the car, was arrested in company with 11 other people, for sexually abusing a group of youngsters, and because of the number they became known as the Dirty Dozen. ibid.
To the great surprise of the detectives, Bailey started to incriminate himself in the events that surrounded Jason’s death. ibid.
Staggeringly, Sidney Cooke was released. ibid.
He was very influential. If not the leader. Child Snatchers: A Day at the Fair II, rozzer
Cooke as the ringleader got 19 years, Oliver and Bailey 15 year sentences, and Stephen Barrell got 13 and a half years. ibid.
Leslie Bailey was soon after charged with the murder of Barry Lewis, subsequently convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. ibid.
Bailey provided credible and horrific detail of Mark’s final moments. ibid.
Sidney Cooke’s alibi proved to be false. ibid.
He took great pleasure in recounting his despicable behaviour with children over many many years. ibid.
Leslie Bailey pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Mark Tildesley and received two more life sentences. ibid.
Leslie Bailey was strangled to death in his prison cell in 1993. ibid.
Robert Oliver was released from prison in 1997. In 2013 Robert Oliver was jailed again for crimes involving children. After serving 9 years of his sentence for the killing of Jason Swift, Sidney Cooke was released from prison. ibid.
Staggeringly, Sidney Cooke was released in 1998. ibid.
He was charged with historic sex crimes and sent back to prison. ibid.
My name is Maroesja. I was six years old when I was initiated into a cult and became known as Chandra. My mother chose to become one of tens of thousands of followers of the India guru Baghwan Shree Rajneesh. Children like me didn’t get a choice. The cult became our entire world. Children of the Cult, ITV 2024
Only by destroying you, I can give you new birth. ibid. Rajneesh
I got used to things that didn’t feel right. ibid. victim
We were encouraged to watch people having sex. ibid.
My mother and I lived as followers in the Netherlands. ibid. Maroesja
Communes were also opening in the UK. One of the biggest was in Suffolk. It was called Medina. ibid.
As well as separating children from their parents, Bhagwan promoted other ways to undermine the family unit. ibid.
An outpouring on social media from children who said they had suffered from systemic social abuse. ibid.
I still suffer with trauma when I remember the constant pressure from men to have sex. ibid.
We found little evidence of any meaningful investigation into the treatment of children in Rajneesh communes around the world.
Bhagwan died in 1990. Today, the Osho International Foundation claims to be the custodian of Bhagwan’s work. ibid.