Sex offender gets 18 years for rape and abuse

A convicted sex offender has been sentenced to 18 years for raping a boy and sexually abusing another child 20 years later.

Associates of the victims told Kenneth Cooke, aged 53, to “enjoy his time in prison” and to “rot in there” as he was led away. He is already serving a nine-year sentence imposed in 2014 for the sexual abuse of a female victim 20 years ago.

Cooke, of Limekiln Green, Walkinstown, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 21 counts of sexually assaulting a boy between January 2000 and July 2003 when the boy was aged between 11 and 13 .