ive seen a lot of true crime but theres something truly terrible about this story. truly fucking awful.

These poor children 💔

Born and raised in West London and never heard of this case. How bloody sad!

A child goes missing everything possible should be done to find them

I am genuinely puzzled why is the murder of all these precious boys being discribed as " manslaughter" it was brutal horrific murder and nothing else!😔😐

The fact that Vishal didn’t get his justice is really heartbreaking and frightening.

As soon as they 1st mentioned fairgrounds The dirty dozen case came right to my head. God bless those poor boys.❤❤❤

This is so chilling.. brought me to tears.
These poor children, and what's happened to them. Bless them  🙏 I hope these psychotic phediaphils are found .

I’d love for them to cover the disappearance of Martin Allen. It is often linked with Vishal’s disappearance and many people believe the Cooke gang were involved too. Also terribly sad and terribly frightening. Both these children deserve proper justice.
Edit: also, I just have to say this: Jason Swift was not a young man, he was 14, and he too never got proper justice.

That Sydney Cook living that long after what he did, he was a monster 💩 my mother only lived till 68, and she was a god fearing woman never harmed anyone, life is shit.

watching this brought back memories of a boy of 15 who vanished in london on the 5th nov 1979 on the way home from school , mind you i had to do some work to locate the name of martin allen . remembered it being it was firework night

Since this was made, there's been a BBC podcast called "Vishal" which identified quite different suspects - a paedophile ring operating out of Muntham House special school in Sussex, near to where Vishal's remains were found. They were also abusing young boys at a house in Kew in London. Two of them were known to have a big thing about skinny young Asian boys.        
         The BBC podcast was made with the famous former police officer, Jackie Malton, who was the lady Helen Mirren's character was based on in 90s police drama "Prime Suspect". She had actually worked on the original investigation into Vishal's abduction back in 1981. She was very angry about this episode of In the Footsteps of Killers and was vocal on twitter, saying this episode was essentially click bait based on hyping up flimsy evidence. Needless to say, she does not believe Sidney Cooke and his associates killed Vishal.
         My own faith in this programme was dented when they said perhaps Jason Swift had met the Sidney Cooke gang while working on the fairs. In fact it's been known since the 80s how Jason Swift met them - in public toilets near where he lived. He only ended up working on the fairs in Southend because they'd trafficked him there to another paedophile ring operating in Southend.
         The police had also previously released what the lady who claimed to have seen Leslie Bailey on the tube actually told them. She had said that she had seen the man with the child in the morning (before Vishal was abducted), that the man in question looked like the comedian Mel Smith (absolutely nothing like Leslie Bailey), and the description of the kid supposedly with the man was nothing like Vishal, other than the fact that he was south Asian.

Sidney Cooke and the dirty dozen !!!! Vile monsters I knew it was them as soon as I heard fairgrounds and copse the fact that Sidney is still alive boils my blood !

Its a shame David Wilson cut off the testimony of Ben about the CSA.

I was 7 that year and I can remember that day, the weather was lovely and there were party celebrations everywhere - to think this lad was taken that day is so sad, he'd be 51 now, and he has been robbed of adulthood and all he could have been become. So sad and angry there are people out there ready to do such evil things like this and ruin not just a child's life but their families life also.

The hugely controversial 1975 ITV documentary "Johnnie Go Home" is now on YouTube to watch - recommended viewing for anyone who wants to know just how dangerous and sleazy London was back then, and how paedophiles operated brazenly in places like Piccadilly and train / tube stations. Amongst other things, it looks at the now notorious "Playland" amusement arcade in which a paedophile network was picking up kids (including a friend of King Charles and Camilla). It illustrates the problem with trying to pin all these cases on the Sidney Cooke gang - they were actually just the thin end of the wedge. The number of paedophile gangs in London at the time (not to mention lone offenders) was absolutely astronomical.  This was highlighted by the still unsolved 1979 case of Martin Allen - abducted from a tube station. Police investigating that found a Dickens-esque world revolving around places like Piccadilly, Victoria, Kings Cross and Euston in which kids were brazenly abused by large numbers of men. They also found at least 10 men who regularly travelled on the tube looking for young lads, earning the nickname "chicken pluckers". Part of the problem we have now is that we simply don't comprehend how bad it was in the 70s and 80s and just how many people were involved.  The fact that the recent BBC podcast "Vishal" found totally different suspects is a testament to how huge the problem was in the 70s and 80s.

Just so terrible, i feel so bad and lost this happened! My heart is broken RIP Vishal 🙏

Heartbreaking 💔

Who else threw up in their mouths? This is horrible!! I hope they get convicted!

This is truly one of the most horrific stories, a specific type of vile evil to do this to this precious boy. The failings by Sussex police are despicable. I hope the family finally get the answers they deserve.