We snapped the remorseless paedophile mingling with unsuspecting tourists at ‘The Portal’ off O’Connell street on Tuesday
We snapped the remorseless paedophile mingling with unsuspecting tourists at ‘The Portal’ off O’Connell street on Tuesday – four days after he was taken by car out of Mountjoy prison.
Cooke (62) was released from Mountjoy Prison on Thursday of last week after serving a 10-and-a-half year sentence for the horrific abuse of his younger Michelle and two other unnamed boys.
Informed of Cooke’s response when we confronted him, brave Michelle, who was abused by the paedophile in the region of 1,000 times – blasted back: “How is he the victim? He’s a monster. Good God!
“I’m just glad now everyone will know after this story appears in the Sunday World what he looks like.
“I’m just gobsmacked. I feel sick that he said that.
“How is he the victim when he took away my childhood completely and the childhoods of two other little boys?
“He traumatised me from my earliest memories!
“I shared a bedroom with that man from the age of five.
Kenneth Cooke
“So my earliest memory, from even before my First Holy Communion is of being abused by him, and then I stopped it when I was 11 when I learned it was wrong during sex education in 5th class.
“But it was as frequent as four or five times at week and by the age of nine he was trying to rape me every weekend.
“So how is he the victim and how is he out? 10 and a half years in prison isn’t half long enough behind bars for that man.”
While under surveillance by this newspaper on Tuesday, Cooke spent several minutes sitting on a bench at ‘The Portal’ off O’Connell Street before going window shopping in the Ilac Shopping Centre and making his way up Capel Street.
Approached by the Sunday World and asked if he was finally willing to offer an apology to Michelle and his other victims, the predator replied: “I’ve nothing to apologise for. I’m the victim. I’m not guilty.”
Asked why three children would separately identify him as their abuser, one of whom he pleaded guilty to abusing, Cooke declined to answer.
Details of the horrific abuse Michelle suffered at the hands of her vile brother were detailed during a civil action she took against him last year in which she was awarded €160,000 in damages against him.
The High Court heard how predator Cooke was 13 years older than her.
The abuse started when she was seven after she was moved into a bunk bed in the same room with him after one of their brothers sustained a serious head injury in a road traffic incident.
She did not know what he was doing was wrong, she said, adding: “He was my big brother and I trusted him, and he warned me not to say anything and gave me sweets and money.”
Kenneth Cooke
She said the abuse was “so regular it was like you were having your dinner”.
He took advantage of times when their mother was out, as she often had to take their father to hospital for appointments due to his health issue, she said.
He would leave the door ajar so he could hear his mother coming up the stairs, she told the court.
Even after she moved into another bedroom after one of her sisters moved out and got married, the abuse continued and escalated to attempts at penetration. When she called out and said it was sore, he would stop.
This would usually occur on Saturday nights when he came home drunk and the other sister who shared the bedroom was out, she said.
After she learnt in school what he was doing was wrong, she said he just “acted normal and there was no suspicion among anyone”.
The abuse occurred between 1983 and 1987. Michelle moved out in 2002 and later got married and had two children.
In 2010, she told a family member, and in 2011, at a family event, she told Cooke’s own wife, who she said believed her.
Kenneth Cooke at the Portal
When Cooke arrived and she confronted him, she said he started verbally abusing her before then trying to “put out his hand saying he was sorry”.
In 2012, after she complained to the gardaí, Cooke was interviewed.
In 2014, he pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of indecent assault but was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to nine years.
He subsequently received another nine-year sentence, to run consecutively to the 2014 sentence, for sexual assaults on a male and a concurrent eight-year sentence for sexual assault on another male.
Asked this week whether he intends on paying the €160,000 in compensation he was ordered to pay Michelle, Cooke, who has yet to hand over a cent, declined to respond.
Speaking in the wake of our confrontation with Cooke, brave Michelle said his replies were all the evidence needed to show he should not have been released.
“What he said shows he shouldn’t have been let out … he isn’t sorry, not one bit sorry, for what he did to us.
“He should never again have been allowed to see the light of day.
“And I honestly hope that one day very soon he keels over and dies a lonely death.
“He had no remorse whatsoever. He’s still claiming he wasn’t guilty.
“But there was no trial in connection with the abuse of the third child because he pleaded guilty.
“So how does that make sense?
“How he got out three and a half years earlier for good behaviour is beyond me.
“How is it good behaviour when he still doesn’t accept what he did?
“Why do they give these monsters 25 per cent remission automatically?
“That needs to be changed! He should at the very least have been asked whether he accepted what he did and had remorse … and, if he said no, he shouldn’t have had his sentence cut!”
Michelle said the fact Cooke’s pictures is being published today is a source of profound relief to her.
“I am glad you got a photo so people around the area he’s in will now know this man is a prolific paedophile.
“Mind your children … that’s my message to parents wherever they put him next.”
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – July 21st
