Murder of Mark Tildesley

Mark Tildesley Mark Anthony Tildesley was born on 31 August 1976 in Berkshire to John and Lavinia Tildesley. had arrived during that holiday week. Tildesley was desperate to go to the funfair, but did not have enough money to do so. He only received 30p in pocket money every week, so he supplemented his allowance by returning trolleys from a Tesco location in Denmark Street back to where they belonged, thus collecting their customers' abandoned 10p deposits. Frank Ayers Fun Fair On the afternoon of 1 June 1984, Tildesley met a man outside the sweet shop on Denmark Street, who gave him a 50p coin with which to buy some sweets. The man said that he would also be at the funfair later that day and that he would pay for Tildesley to go on the dodgems, Tildesley's favourite ride. Shortly after 5:30 pm, Tildesley left home on his bicycle to make the journey to the funfair, which would open at 6 pm. He promised to be back home by 7:30 pm. On his way to the fair, he met with two friends; however, they wanted to go home before heading to the funfair later. Tildesley continued alone to the fair; the meeting with the friends was the last time anyone who knew him personally saw him alive. Reported missing Tildesley failed to arrive home at his promised time of 7:30 pm. At 8:00 pm, his parents went to the fair to find him and discovered his bicycle chained to railings near the entrance. They returned home and at 10:00 pm Tildesley's mother reported him missing to the police. ==Searches and public appeals==

Initial search Thames Valley Police (TVP) undertook an intensive and thorough search of the Wokingham area, Overall, police received a massive public response with over 1,200 different individuals phoning in, who gave 2,500 potential leads. ==Investigations==

Initial investigation The initial investigation was led by Detective Constable Geoff Gilbert. Coincidentally, Gilbert knew Tildesley personally through his mother's job at Wokingham police station. Operation Orchid In 1989, the Metropolitan Police established Operation Orchid, an enquiry into the disappearance of missing children led by Detective Chief Superintendent Roger Stoodley. As part of this operation, in December 1990, they interviewed convicted paedophile Leslie 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. Investigators had obtained a letter and a hand-drawn map which had been given by Bailey to a fellow inmate at HM Prison Wandsworth. The map showed where Tildesley had been killed; the letter, which had been written by a cellmate, was addressed to Cooke, who belonged to the same paedophile gang as Bailey and who also knew about Tildesley's murder. In 2007, Thames Valley Police set up the Dedicated Review Team to re-investigate unsolved murders and serious sexual assaults over the previous fifty years, which included Tildesley's murder, but nothing has come of it. Tildesley is the "Dirty Dozen" ring's first known murder victim. However, in 2015, following media and political pressure, the police re-opened the investigation into the 1981 murder of seven-year-old Vishal Mehrotra near East Putney tube station in London. The gang are being investigated in relation to this killing, which took place more than three years prior to the murder of Tildesley. In 2015, Stoodley expressed concern about a "cover up" by the Metropolitan Police over the Tildesley case, maintaining that there was sufficient evidence to prosecute Cooke over the killing. ==Legal proceedings==

Sidney Charles Cooke Cooke has never admitted playing any role in Tildesley's murder, despite a key ring identical to the one owned by the boy being found in his repossessed Jaguar XJ in 1985, a year after the disappearance. Leslie Patrick Bailey When he was sent to trial for Tildesley's killing, Bailey was already serving a prison sentence in HM Prison Whitemoor for the manslaughter of Jason Swift. On 7 October 1993, Bailey was murdered by two fellow inmates via strangulation with a ligature. His death was welcomed by Tildesley's parents. Leonard William Gilchrist "Lennie" Smith Smith has never admitted playing any role in Tildesley's murder. No charges were therefore brought against him as the CPS felt that Bailey's confession was insufficient evidence for Smith's case to result in a successful conviction. "Odd Bod" A fourth man, mentioned by Bailey as part of the Operation Orchid investigation as being partly responsible for Tildesley's murder, was a relative of his. He was referred to as 'Odd Bod' throughout the investigation. The subsequent trial was very unusual in that, despite Cooke and Smith not having been formally charged in the murder, the judge publicly named them as the perpetrators. On hearing the verdict, Tildesley's mother responded by calling for the re-introduction of the death penalty, saying, "He should have been hanged." ==Body==

Bailey claimed he did not know where Cooke had buried the body. Cooke has indicated he knows the location of the body but refuses to tell the police, or the boy's family, where. Following the confession by Bailey to the murder, the police dug up The Moors in March 1991, but they did not find anything. In May 1998, the police refused to re-question Cooke in relation to Tildesley's murder, and also refused to dig up a nearby golf course to search for his remains. In 2012, a fragment of human skull, discovered near Evendons Lane, was found not to be Tildesley's. Tildesley's body has never been found and the murder is among Wokingham's most notorious crimes. In 2019, the victim's family made a last-ditch plea begging Cooke, who is in his nineties, to reveal the whereabouts of Tildesley's body. ==Aftermath and memorials==

Tildesley's bedroom Tildesley's parents kept his bedroom exactly how it was the day he went missing until his mother moved to nearby Langley Common Road in Barkham (further away than Evendons Lane), shortly after his father's death in 2005. When Tildesley's mother died in 2011, a second name plate bearing her name was put on the bench, directly beneath the original plate, in remembrance of her. Memorial service A memorial service was held on 30 January 1993 at the Rose Street Methodist Church (now the Wokingham Methodist Church) in Rose Street in Wokingham, located opposite to the Tildesley residence. Headstone A headstone to Tildesley was erected, on 30 January 1993, at the Free Church Burial Ground on Reading Road in Wokingham. It reads "IN LOVING MEMORY OF MARK ANTHONY TILDESLEY BORN 31 AUGUST 1976". ==Television==

• Tildesley's murder appeared in the BBC Crimewatch episodes on both 7 June 1984 and 13 June 1985. • Tildesley's murder was documented in the BBC Crimewatch File "The Lost Boys" episode in 1994. • Tildesley's murder was featured in an episode of the Channel 4 programme Dispatches in the late 1990s. • Tildesley's murder was featured in the episode of BBC Panorama on 11 May 1998. ==Books==

• Tildesley's murder was featured in the 1993 book "Lambs to the Slaughter" by Ted Oliver and Ramsay Smith. Oliver and Smith were editors of the Daily Mirror at the time of Tildesley's disappearance. ==See also==