Peter Samuel Cook

Peter Samuel Cook (17 August 1928 – 9 January 2004)^[1][2] was a British serial rapist who attacked women in Cambridge, England and so became known in the press as the Cambridge Rapist.^[3] He attacked women after breaking into their bedsits and flats.^[4] He was active between October 1974 and April 1975, and was also called the 'hooded rapist' because of a distinctive leather mask he wore whilst carrying out his crimes.^[3] The mask was reported to be "stitched from an old leather shopping bag. The zipper-mouthed mask had the word 'rapist' painted in white across the forehead".^[5]

Cook, who was arrested following what was one of Britain’s biggest police manhunts, was escaping from the scene of an attack wearing a long blonde wig as a disguise when he was apprehended.^[3][5] At the time of his arrest, Cook was 46 years old and working as a delivery driver for a wine company.^[6]

At his trial in 1976, in addition to six rapes Cook was also convicted of wounding two other women and committing an act of gross indecency on a ninth. A further victim had fought him off when he forcibly tried to gain access to her flat. On each occasion he is believed to have spoken to his victim.^[4] Following Cook's conviction, Mr Justice Melford Stevenson gave him two life sentences and recommended he should spend the rest of his life in jail.^[3]

T-shirts capitalising on Cook’s notoriety were sold by punk fashion designers Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood and one of these is retained in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.^[7]