Detective: No link to Cooke when Philip went missing

Eamon Cooke was a convicted paedophile, who was found guilty of 42 assault charges in 2007 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He died in a hospice last week, aged 79.

He was also the father of 11 children, who are now aged between 20 and 27.

His convictions related to incidences of abuse that dated back to the late 1970s.

He had previously stood trial in 2003, for attempted unlawful carnal knowledge and indecent assault of four girls. He was found guilty but released in 2006 after the convictions were quashed due a legal technicality.

He worked in Radio Dublin, a pirate station, in the 1960s and 1970s and it was in this capacity that he came into contact with young people. He was always known to gardaí.

“In the 70s and 80s he was known as Alpha 6 amongst the police in the city because any crime scene you ever went to in the city you could be almost sure he’d turn up at it. He’d drive around in his Jaguar car and he’d be monitoring all the Garda calls,” retired Detective Sergeant Alan Bailey told the Irish Examiner.

“He was sleazy. I remember there was a double stabbing up on Manor Street and we arrived and he was standing there over one of the bodies.

“Several times I threatened to do him for dangerous driving, he used to drive around the city like a garda would drive around the city with their lights and sirens on.

“When Philip Cairns went missing there was no link to him, as a matter of fact there were no links to him and the other paedophile activity he was subsequently convicted of. He was well-known, a complete oddball.

“You couldn’t say he ever did anything that would make you suspect him, he was as much a nuisance as anything. He was sleazy and dirty and he was getting his kicks out of these crime scenes. You do get that a lot. There are people who are fascinated by police work, you took him as another police groupie.”