Philip Cairns' Murder finally confirmed?

Okay, timeline as much as I can put together:

Note - Italics are uncorroborated, personal accounts, blogs, non-reviewed articles and the like.

1977 - Eamonn Cooke assumes control of pirate radio station, which at the time were underground hits as many people felt let down by the mainstream radio. These were pretty illegal and got raided every so often, but many flourished. This was located in 54 Inchicore Road, Dublin.

Sometime in the 70s/80s - Radio staff challenge Cooke on accusations of child abuse. Most get intimidated, bullied out or removed. Talk of how passionate Cooke was, and how he insisted on going out at nights digging to get lines put in for the pirate station.

Also appears he was rather a law unto himself in terms of getting involved in police work, chasing down stolen cars and the like. Appears to have had support in the local community and within the police force.

October 1986 - Philip Cairns goes missing.

Later October 1986 - Philip Cairns' schoolbag turns up in a previously searched laneway, (found by two girls) having been apparently replaced near the site of his disappearance, minus several books. Bag was tested and three profiles were taken from it, but forensics not good enough at the time to pinpoint anything. Bag kept since.

1986 - Cooke commits arson attack against home of a young girl who threatens to go to the Gardai for sexual assault against her. Her home is burned down. Reason is unknown at the time. Convicted and gets a suspended sentence.

1989 - Cooke meets (one of) his future wives (he was married three times). He was in his fifties at this point, she "very young" (I believe early 20s, but I can't be sure where I read that). She had been the victim of a paedophile priest as a child and was badly traumatised. He was sympathetic to her and helped her in her quest for justice. She married him and they had eight children together.

2002, a man dialled 999 and confessed to murdering Philip. He sounded drunk and as though he was ringing from a pub. He is never traced.

2002 - Cooke convicted of rape and indecent assault on four girls.

2006 - Cooke's conviction is overturned on a technicality.


October 2006 - Fresh appeal 20 years after his disappearance. Huge response, but no concrete leads.

2007 - Cooke put on trial again, with two of the previous complainants (including the girl who was the victim of his arson attack) as witnesses. Reports of his offering victims money after each incident - and threatened them that they would be put in a home if they told anyone of the assaults. It's noted that he has eight previous convictions, including the arson attack. Pleads not guilty to all 42 accounts (over a period from 1976-78), but is convicted and sentenced to ten years, with the 1,300 days served to be taken into account. Trial delayed multiple times due to claims of ill health from Cooke.

October 2007 - Another appeal, Crimewatch, another large response, but no concrete leads.

May 2009 - A search in a woodland after an elderly woman contacted Gardai and said he had been murdered and buried in two sites. She accused a man living in the area, but nothing could be proved against him. Nothing was found and the trail ran cold.

2011 - Another appeal for information. A woman ("A") contacts tentatively, but then recuses herself.

July 2014 - Phil Cairns', (Philip's father), dies.

2015 - Cooke applies for conviction to be overturned due to technicality and is turned down.

May 2016 - Woman ("B") contacts Gardai about Cooke's involvement in the case. Gardai question Cooke on his deathbed, he confirms some aspects of the story but does not directly confirm his involvement in the murder.

Approximately also May 2016 - Victim of Cooke ("C") being councelled by Angela Copley, a well-respected therapist who deals with child abuse and its long-term effects, tells her that a girl was forced to dump Philip Cairns' bag in the alleyway a week after his disappearance by Eamonn Cooke.

"A" is contacted again, although nothing of what she did or didn't say is known. It is also not known if "A" and "C" are the same person or not. Gardai also talk with "C", see previous about whether or not she is also A. It is also possible that B is the girl who was forced to dump the bag, but that is not in the public domain at the moment.

May 2016 - Cooke, dying of cancer, is questioned by Gardai. He is told that he can write it down, not to be opened after his death, but he refuses, although he does confirm some aspects of the woman's story.

Approximately late May - Copley reports this information to the Gardai. It is revealed that they are already working on the Cooke angle from the May report.

June 2016 - Cooke dies of cancer in a prison hospice.

Current: Copley also says that there is quite a bit of cross-over between the victims of Bill Carney, a paedophile priest (who was active in the region and paid off by the Church to leave the priesthood without being arrested. He was was eventually arrested in London 30 years later,) and the victims of Cooke, including the wife mentioned above who was abused by Carney. Suspicions being raised about a paedophile ring active in the region at the time.

References
http://ie.vlex.com/vid/dpp-v-eamon-cooke-66299300
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/meave-sheehan-dark-secrets-predator-captain-cooke-took-to-the-grave-34792994.html
http://www.abigailrieley.com/pirates-paedophiles/

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

Wow incredible!Did you do all that today? Somewhere a newspaper is missing a star journo!

I'd just add to the above that the counsellor said today there was quite a lot of crossover between victims of Bill Carney and Cooke. Cookes wife had grown up in a care home and was a victim of Carney and bore his child.
I can't help thinking it's very conceivable that some sort of paedophile ring operated at the time.
I'm afraid the reluctance to expose Cooke also makes me suspicious of that.

I'm not going to guarentee that it is all absolutely accurate (the story is moving along and there's weirdly little about Cooke on the internet until the last few days. You'd think a public figure with 8 pretty serious convictions even BEFORE the child rape would have more), but accurate as I know at the moment.

Actually, yes, now you mention it, I did see the whole paedophile ring thing. I don't know who Bill Carney is, so I didn't want to hike off onto that element of it too, but it sounds like it may well be important. Ah - yes, just looking it up there, the paedophile priest that attacked the child that later became Cooke's wife. God, how awful for her too, to know that he was likely attracted to her because of how awfully she'd been treated. She said as much too in a rare interview.

Thanks for adding that info, Whimsical.

Yeah, the A and B issue is a bit complicated. I had to go for the A/B/C system to keep them straight in my head myself. It's certainly being implied that A and B are the same person, in which case, jesus, I can't imagine what demons she's battled to come forward with this, what hold he had on her to force her to dump the bag and what much greater hold he had on her after that as an "accomplice".

I am usually very, very sparing with my use of the word "evil" for human beings, as it's such an extreme and wholescale word, but that act was bloody evil.

It does seem like there have been multiple reports that Cooke was involved, which were dismissed by the Gardaí for whatever reason.

You really can't vilify a woman for revealing information at this stage when it seems likely that she was a victim, probably lived in fear of reprisal and saw others who went to the Authorities have their evidence dismissed or at least investigated and found to be unhelpful.

I would assume that anyone who is in counselling and is in contact with a victims rights campaigner is not in the best place mentally.

This is purely speculation on my part, but I don't think that someone who was abused, manipulated, saw a murder and was a small child of nine would be in the best place mentally. Some have dismissed her speaking up as attention seeking, but I would not be surprised if someone who went through all of that at a young age suffered horrible, mental scarring. You could be looking at someone who had a breakdown, who spent years in psychiatric services (we all know how good the system is), had an addiction issue, was homeless, etc.

It is also possible that this person did approach someone before but may never have been taken seriously. Speculation again, but if that crazy attention seeker/ dirty junkie/ nutter/ weirdo/ whatever negative label you care to attach came and told you a story like that, would you listen? She may very well have had a horrible fear of the authorities due to her part in it (I do not hold her responsible in any way in case of confusion).

Those of us who are sitting in our nice, safe homes, on the bus home/ out, in the pub, etc will never be able to relate. My biggest childhood trauma was loosing family pets, grandparents dying and the usual childhood stuff. I cannot conceive what a different life experience would have resulted in.

Hearing his voice gives me the creeps.

Notice how he stopped and cleared his throat before he mentioned the allegations?

wokingvoter wrote: »

This is absolute nonsense. "whole town knows". Utter bo**ix. Why would you make this up? Your saying that Mary in no. 2 knows that Michael in no. 6 is raping her child , and that everyone in fact knows it and nobody's doing anything about it? Are you totally deluded??

There is still abuse going on within families that is not being reported. Frankly anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded.

I've also known people who have reported children as being in danger and the system is totally useless. The system is still failing children every day.

Keane2baMused wrote: »

Hearing his voice gives me the creeps.

Notice how he stopped and cleared his throat before he mentioned the allegations?

He did that in all his broadcasts of pirate radio news so I'm not sure it actually means anything