A MAN who portrayed himself in evidence as a champion of travellers' rights has been convicted by a jury of abducting and raping a woman who had been working as a prostitute in 1994.
During the 16 day trial at the Central Criminal Court, Thomas Gerard Stokes, who classed himself as an "Irish tinker", claimed he was the victim of a massive and elaborate conspiracy to frame him because he had exposed Garda brutality against the travelling community.
Stokes (36), married but separated, of Piercetown, Newbridge, Co Kildare, was remanded in custody to November 11th, 1996, for sentence by Mr Justice Moriarty.
On Saturday night, the jury of seven women and five men took just over four hours to convict Stokes by a 10-2 majority of falsely imprisoning the young mother of two in his car on the night of December 29th-30th, 1994.
The jury also found him guilty of raping and sexually assaulting the victim in the Wicklow Mountains - also by 10-2 verdicts. Stokes had denied the charges.
He blessed himself but showed no other emotion as Mr Justice Moriarty thanked the jury and exempted them from further service for 20 years.
The victim had told the jury she had returned to prostitution seven weeks before the rape after lapsing back into heroin abuse. She needed the money to feed her habit. She only performed oral sex and masturbation and did not have sexual intercourse because she loved her boyfriend.
She had remained off drugs for 18 months prior to that as her boyfriend did not approve of her addiction or prostitution.
A few minutes after she arrived at her Fitzwilliam Place pitch, a Ford Escort estate with two men in it pulled up beside her. She agreed a £30 price for oral sex with the driver, Stokes. He told her his passenger, who was about 19 years old, was getting out around the corner.
She directed him towards a carpark she normally used but realised she was in trouble when Stokes failed to take the correct turning. She began screaming and crying but he drove to the mountains.
The younger man kept referring to him as "Tom". Stokes was annoyed and ordered him to use a different Christian name.
They stopped at a caravan because the passenger wanted "hash". She was able to see her abductors' faces clearly when the internal car light was switched on.
Stokes then drove further up the mountains and stopped on a bog road. The young woman tearfully relived her ordeal as she recalled for the jury the 2 1/2 hours that followed.
"I was crying and screaming They told me to shut up or they would bury me. I told them I wanted to get home to my kids and my mother. They were rough and kept calling me a tramp.
They took a break for a cigarette and then started again. Stokes demanded to have sex and she asked him to use a condom claiming she had AIDS. Afterwards, they dressed and threw rubbish from the car, including used condoms, tissues and cigarette and condom boxes.
When Stokes took a bar jack in his hands she thought it was a gun to kill her. But they drove down the mountain and let her go.
Gardai said the victim took them to the rape scene the next evening and they recovered items she described they had thrown from the car, including a used condom. A second used condom was found on January 4th, 1995.
A nationwide alert had been launched for Stokes on January 1st, 1995, and a fax sent to all Garda stations described him as "extremely dangerous and possibly armed".
A mobile patrol spotted his car parked outside a guesthouse on Glanmire Road, Cork, on January 1st. Minutes later, Stokes was stopped by Garda Des Quinn and gave his name as "Anthony Maguire of Newry". His licence had a Dundalk address on it.
Stokes received a 14 day sentence for giving a false name. He was released from Portlaoise Prison on January 23rd, 1995, and arrested for the rape.
The victim picked him out immediately in an identity parade of 17 people at Dublin's Harcourt Terrace Garda station. She also identified his car. He declined to answer questions and refused to provide forensic samples despite legal advice to do so.
He did provide a hair sample and Dr Maureen Smyth, of the Forensic Science Laboratory, said she extracted DNA from the hair which matched the DNA extracted from the second used condom recovered at the scene.
A second forensic scientist, Dr Sheila Willis, said fibre evidence "very strongly supported" contact between the victim and Stoke's jacket and "strongly supported" contact between the victim and Stoke's car. A hair taken from the car had also been linked to the woman.
Stokes spent six hours giving evidence. He told the jury he was ill with piles in a Kildare house on the night of the alleged rape and claimed he was being "framed" by a conspiracy involving gardai, prison officers, the victim, a doctor and the forensic scientists.
The female owner of the house said she let him use her bed that night while she slept on a chair. She said she noted this in her diary.
However, Mr Pat O'Connell (with Ms Maureen Clark SC), prosecuting, said Garda handwriting experts discovered an obliterated portion of her diary entry for December 29th read: "I let Tom stay in my room last night . . . I am looking forward to my own bed tonight."
He said this indicated Stokes had slept in her house on the previous night, December 28th, and not on December 29th, as she claimed. She replied he did not leave her house until after 9.00 a.m. on December 30th.
Stokes named the main "conspirators" who "stalked and followed him everywhere" as Det Sgt James Costello, Sgt Patrick Tully and Garda Mary Walsh from Rathfarnham - the team who investigated the rape.
He was harassed because he complained about the treatment of travellers, he told defence counsel, Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC (with Mr Garnet Orange).
Stokes said following his arrest in Cork he was questioned in relation to the North of Ireland and whether he had political connections. He was also assaulted, threatened and abused during various attempts to get him to sign a statement.
Stokes told the jury he classed himself as an "Irish tinker". He said he went to England with his wife in 1987 and attended night classes where he learned to read and write.
He worked for an off shoot of the Big Issue magazine after he met "gypsies" and exposed the "brutality inflicted on travellers, including women and children by the gardai".
When he separated from his wile in 1993 he returned to Ireland and began writing a book on his experiences of life among the settled community.