A Dublin man convicted last week of stalking women was sentenced yesterday at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to three years in jail.
Judge Yvonne Murphy had heard that he harassed nine women over a six-year period by threatening them over the phone and sending obscene mail telling them they would meet the same fate as a number of missing women.
Thomas O'Connor (45), of Rock Road, Booterstown, posted letters of up to six pages with pictures of half-naked women with the faces of his various targets superimposed on them.
He ordered them to hang their underwear in their window on a specified date and time and said if they failed to comply he would ruin their lives by stalking them and the same thing could happen to them as missing women Jo Jo Dullard, Deirdre Jacob, Annie McCarrick and Fiona Pender.
The court was told he also made references to murdered BBC presenter Jill Dando and sent newspaper cuttings with the headline "Theory of Serial Killer Rejected".
He made numerous anonymous phone calls, grunting and groaning, and one of the women reported receiving a letter with faeces on it.
O'Connor had pleaded guilty to three counts of sending obscene postal packages, three counts of harassing women by persistently communicating with them and three counts of harassing women by continuously watching or besetting them on dates from October 1996 to February 2001.
Judge Murphy said the references to murdered and missing women was appalling. "The main consideration for me in dealing with this case is the distress, amounting to terror, that was experienced by each of his victims," she said.
One of the women told the court that her partner of 10 years had only recently died at the time she received the first letter, and it made her fear for her life.
She said: "I was still in mourning for my partner when this started to happen. The letters were so full of hate and viciousness, and they were very personal and extremely disgusting.
"I was very frightened for myself and my little boy. I was living on my own and absolutely terrified. He's just a nasty, bitter little man and I've no idea how anyone could do such a thing."
Another woman said the incidents had taken over her life for five years and she wanted closure on the matter so she could put it behind her.
She said: "I'd never laid eyes on this man, yet he seemed to know a lot of details about my life. I feel he sentenced me to 5½ years in prison and I want that to reflect in the sentence that he gets."
Det Sgt Colm O'Malley told Ms Mary Ellen Ring, prosecuting, that each letter from O'Connor had references to the woman to whom it was sent. He told one women in a letter that if he didn't obey him she was "f . . . ing dead".
Each woman gave the material to the gardaí.
The investigation began in October 1995 and it soon became evident that there was a link between the cases. Det Sgt O'Malley said surveillance operations were set up on the homes of the women and O'Connor was finally arrested.
He co-operated with gardaí and said the control he had over the women and the fear he put in them gave him a kick.
He concentrated on single women living alone and got their names and addresses from the Thom's Directory.
O'Connor had two children, aged six and two, and had recently separated from his wife. He worked as a curator at the Civic Museum but was suspended after he was charged. He had since parted company with the museum.
Psychologist Mr Julian Boon said O'Connor had various symptoms of a sadistic stalker. Imprisonment was unlikely to help in his rehabilitation.