Leslie Bailey (died October 1993), was a paedophile and murderer who was involved along with Sidney Cooke and others in the murders and sexual abuse of at least three young boys in and around London in the 1980s.

He was sent to trial, along with Cooke and one other person, for the 1984 murder of seven year old Mark Tildesley. He was already in prison for the 1985 killing of Jason Swift but was also jailed for Mark's murder in 1992. He seemed to be the only one of the gang who would admit to his crimes. He was killed in October 1993 after being attacked in his prison cell by two other prisoners.

Bailey was known as Catweazle, a nickname associated with the fictional cartoon character.

Mark Tildesley

On 1st June 1984 7-year-old Mark Tildesley was at a funfair and was lured away with the promise of a bag of sweets by Cooke.

Mark's bicycle was found chained to railings nearby. Taken from the fair to a caravan, Bailey claimed the boy was drugged by Cooke and Lennie Smith, before they strangled him during an orgy of sexual violence involving all three men. Mark's body has never been found.

Mark is believed to be the first victim killed by the gang.

The involvement of Cooke, Bailey and Smith in Mark Tildesley disappearance did not come to light until two of the three men were serving life sentences for killing Jason Swift.

Bailey was the only one convicted of a crime in relation to Mark's death, after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 1992. The CPS decided that prosecutions against Cooke and Smith, who had never admitted to being involved in the boy's death, would fail because they relied too heavily on Bailey's testimony.

Jason Swift

In November 1985, Jason's body was found dumped in a field in Essex. He had been drugged, sexually assaulted and asphyxiated.

The attention of police was drawn to Sidney Cooke's gang, which operated out of a squalid council flat on Kingsmead Estate in Hackney, Investigations revealed that the flat had been the scene of Jason's death, where it's thought members of the gang had sex with the teenager.

When the case came to trial in 1989, the members of Cooke's gang all blamed each other for causing Jason's death, and there was only enough evidence to convict four of them on the basis of manslaughter.

MurderUK.com

SEX: M RACE: W TYPE: T MOTIVE: Sex.

MO: Pedophlle slayer of boys age six to 14; police suggest 25 possible victims; alleged accomplices in second and third murders never charged.

DISPOSITION: 15 years for manslaughter (with three accomplices), 1989; life term on second count, 1991; life term on third count, 1992; found dead in cell "under suspicious circumstances," Oct. 1993.

ACCOMPLICES: Stephen Barrell (?- ), 15 years in 1989; Sidney Cooke (1928- ), 19 years in 1989; Robert Oliver (1955- ), 15 years in 1989.