A MAN who attempted to convince a jury he was a persecuted Irish tinker" has been jailed for life for the abduction and rape of a woman in the Wicklow Mountains in 1994 while she worked as a prostitute.
Thomas Gerard Stokes looked almost quizzically at Mr Justice Moriarty when he handed down one of the heaviest sentences ever for a single sexual crime.
Stokes stood between two prison officers and took occasional notes as Mr Justice Moriarty described him as "devious", "dangerous", "cynical", "irreconcilable", "unscrupulous" and "criminal".
Dealing with claims by Stokes that he was framed by gardai because he championed travellers rights, Mr Justice Moriarty said: "Far from being a spokesman or apologist for travelling people, it seems to me that in this unhappy case you have brought considerable discredit to any persons who might wish to associate with you".
Later, as Mr Blaise O'Carroll SC, defending, said he was instructed to appeal against the verdict, Stokes put his hand to his mouth and seemed to be yawning. He also appeared to be smiling faintly as he stretched out his arm to allow his prison officer escort to handcuff him for return to prison.
Mr Justice Moriarty said the 23 year old mother of two had been subjected to a "horrifying 2 1/2 hour ordeal of sexual and other violence". He told Stokes: "Your conduct was so dispassionate you stopped to smoke a cigarette and then resumed the whole ghastly exercise again.
The victim impact report made it clear the injured woman had a difficult life and she remained a "young woman beset by problems". She had been a heroin addict and a prostitute at different intervals. But she was a resilient and reliable witness and had received valuable attention from a psychiatrist and from Garda Mary Walsh, who was part of the rape investigation team from Rathfarnham Garda station.
Mr Justice Moriarty said the court had heard much about Stokes's own background and involvement in crime from adolescence. Stokes, he said, had done much to raise his literacy level.
However, he had a long criminal record and in 1984 he showed he had a capacity to offend sexually when he was jailed for four years at Dungarvan Circuit Court for indecent assault.
Mr Justice Moriarty said what particularly concerned him was the evidence of conviction in Britain for threats to kill and arson. Police made tape recordings of threatening telephone calls Stokes made to his estranged wife.
Having been jailed for eight years at Knightsbridge Crown Court in 1990, Stokes had managed to persuade the parole board three years later that he was a "person of reformed and changed ways". "Your conduct during the trial has shown a callous and cynical disregard for the truth and you have shown yourself to be a resolute, calculating and effective person in support of your own arguments," the judge said.
"In appraising the case, I cannot think of any person in my virtual 10 years as a judge here and in the Circuit Court who has shown to be so devious, dangerous and unscrupulous," he added.
It was one of the longest rape trials in recent memory. The jury had convicted Stokes late on the night of October 5th, after a 16 day trial. But as the jury had sat late into the evening on some days, the trial's real length was about four weeks, the judge said.
Stokes (36), married but separated, of Piercetown, Newbridge, Co Kildare, was found guilty by a 10-2 majority of falsely imprisoning, raping and sexually assaulting the young woman in the Wicklow Mountains on the night of December 29th-30th, 1994. Stokes had claimed he had been "stalked and harassed" by gardai, particularly from Rathfarnham, because he championed travellers' rights.
Mr Justice Moriarty imposed life for the rape and concurrent terms of 12 years for the kidnapping and the maximum five years for the sexual assault.
Last week, Stokes was jailed for three years after he was convicted by a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of ramming a Garda patrol car near Monasterevin, Co Kildare, on May 4th, 1994.
Det Const Stephen Wheatley of New Scotland Yard told Mr Justice Moriarty that Stokes had lived in England in the late 1980s. He was convicted at Knightsbridge Crown Court in 1989 of three counts of threatening to kill, arson endangering life and criminal damage to property by fire. The detective said those cases related to the accused's separated wife. Stokes tried to burn down a house at Notting Hill, London, where she had been staying with relatives. He also set fire to a lorry.
Det Sgt James Costello, Rathfarnham, told prosecuting counsel Ms Maureen Clark SC that Stokes also had convictions in Ireland dating back to the 1970s.