October 2003 A child rapist on their doorstep A Group of children play in a park. The younger ones are under the watchful eyes of parents. Other mums and dads are not far away, happy to let their children lark about in what should be a safe place. They would be horrified to learn that just yards from the playground is the home of a paedophile. Only a garden fence separates the home of 72-year-old Andrew Cooke, a convicted child rapist, from the playing fields. Through the net curtains of his bedroom window in Kirkwhite Court, The Meadows, Cooke had watched children playing football in the grassed play area for more than five years. He went largely unnoticed because he overcame temptation until last year when he befriended a young boy by giving him money. Nottingham Crown Court heard he ‘groomed’ the child over several months before abusing him. In his home detectives recovered a loose video tape, showing Cooke abusing the boy. And so powerful was his hold over the child, the youngster had refused to make an allegation against him. Cooke’s neighbours had not known he had been an abuser of children on-and-off over a 40-year period, and there is no law that would have required them to know. Even police were not told of his history – because Cooke’s sex crimes had been committed before the sex offenders’ register was introduced in 1997. There are hundreds of sex offenders in Notts who were convicted before the register was introduced. Many will have successfully completed the terms of their prison licence and are back in the community. Only those who re-offend will have their names added to the register. custody. At court, he admitted four offences of indecent assault, one of gross indecency and one of making an indecent photograph of a child. Judge Joan Butler QC sentenced him to seven years and placed him on the sex offenders’ register for life. She said: “You are a real and present danger to children.” She included a restraining order, which bans Cooke from living within 100m of a children’s playground, or designated play area, school or educational facility. He is also banned from possession of a camera or video recording equipment. Cooke moved to his rented warden-aided maisonette in Kirkwhite Court, which is owned by Nottingham City Council, in the summer of 1997. Among his sex crimes, Cooke had been responsible for the rape of a young girl in London, for which he had received a ‘life’ sentence on November 17, 1989, at the Old Bailey. But he appealed and on July 2, 1990, the sentence was cut to ten years. It meant Cooke would not be on ‘life licence” when he was released. Those on life licence before the sex offenders” register was introduced are required to register by law. Cooke had slipped through the net. His licence period had finished by September 1997, when the SOR was made law, and freed him from the tough monitoring of the authorities. Now, anyone convicted of a sex offence and jailed for 30 months or more are required to sign the register for life. Notts Probation Service would not divulge details of the terms of Cooke”s release. Today a multi-agency public protection panel would have been responsible for him had he been on life licence or convicted in 1997 or thereafter. Nottingham was considered to be the only suitable relocation for Cooke. It was far away from his victims, their relatives and places of work. He had not lived or offended in the city previously. Cooke was given a council-run home in Broxtowe in 1996. He transferred to The Meadows the following year. The pensioner had managed to stay out of trouble – until he befriended his next victim. Detective Sergeant Paul Winter, of the Dangerous Person’s Management Unit in Notts, said: “Cooke wasn’t required to sign the sex offenders’ register and could live where he liked.