The unsolved murders of nine young boys thought to be linked to evil paedophile Sidney Cooke are to be investigated amid claims of a police cover-up in the 1980s.

Cooke, 88, a former fairground worker, became one of the country’s most reviled paedophiles after it was revealed he was a leading member of a child sex abuse ring based in Hackney, east London.

The gang of paedophiles, known as the Dirty Dozen, hired out rent boys and even snatched children off the streets before subjecting them to abuse and sexual torture.

It emerged the group led by Cooke each paid £5 to rape the vulnerable young boys.

Now the Sunday Mirror reports police are investigating allegations senior officers covered up links to nine unsolved murders involving Cooke and his Dirty Dozen child sex ring.

Cooke has long been suspected of procuring boys for VIPs but none of his ‘customers’ have ever been prosecuted.

The newspaper reports the original investigation led officers to suspect 12 murdered young boys, some as young as six, may have been victims of the gang – but only three of those cases were ever followed up.