Man who drove into RTÉ reception doors sentenced

A nolle prosequi was entered by the State earlier on a further charge that Stokes harassed RTÉ presenter Pat Kenny on which he had been due to stand trial next January.

Garda Joseph Callahan told Ms Caroline Biggs BL, prosecuting, that he feared Stokes would try to contact RTÉ employees after his release, specifically Pat Kenny, his family and his home.

Judge Desmond Hogan imposed a two-year sentence and suspended the last 12 months but gave liberty to re-enter the matter for activation of the suspended portion should Stokes breech the conditions.

Judge Hogan ordered him to enter a bond "not to annoy, molest or interfere with in any way, employees of RTÉ, those contracted to RTÉ or their families".

He also ordered him to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for three years and to liaise with the Probation Service in relation to post-release psychiatric treatment.

Mr Sean Gillane BL, defending Stokes, said his client was "very very sick" at the time of the offences, having developed a fixation on road safety and felt he was being ignored by "organs of public opinion".

Gda Callahan told Ms Biggs that Stokes gained entry to the RTÉ grounds by crashing a car through security barriers at the front entrance.

Mr John Kelly, a taxi driver, was waiting by RTÉ reception and noticed about a dozen people hanging around outside when he saw Stokes driving up behind him and blowing his horn.

Gda Callahan said another witness, Mr Ronan Murphy, saw Stokes edging the car through bollards towards reception and telling people to get out of the way.

Mr Murphy thought it was a joke until he saw people running away and Ms Shirley Bradshaw said she saw Stokes revving the engine of the car and driving it into the doors.

Mr Aidan Lynch, who was using the revolving doors at the front of reception at the time, said he saw the car coming across the patio area and hitting the left hand side of the glass at reception. The glass cracked and he thought it would fall on top of him but he managed to get back into the building.

Gda Callahan said security men restrained Stokes until gardaí arrived and he was taken to Donnybrook Station. Stokes admitted damaging the doors and said he had wanted to make a peaceful protest.

He told gardaí that he was angry about a Sunday Independent article, which had appeared on that day (December 2) based on his interruption of the 'Late Late Show' the previous week and on his relationship with his daughter.

Gda Callahan said Stokes had been a "gentleman" in custody and had been co-operative in relation to the criminal damage but had not accepted that he had endangered anybody. He said damage totalling €14, 340 had been done to the doors.

Stokes had one previous conviction which was a public order offence committed in 2003.

Gda Callahan agreed with Mr Gillane that Stokes had been a "good decent, hardworking citizen" until problems in his business and marriage had lead to both ending in the late 90s when he began to use alcohol and "clues" to his mental illness began to emerge, but were ignored.

He agreed Stokes had developed a fixation on road deaths and believed he had a device that could increase road safety but his attempts to market it had been unsuccessful and he felt he was not being taken seriously.

Gda Callahan also agreed that Stokes developed a fixation with RTÉ, culminating in his interruption of the 'Late Late Show' on November 24, 2006 when he believed a person from the Road Safety Authority was to appear on the show.

Mr Gillane said this led to a degree of publicity and Stokes had been angered by an article in the Sunday Independent titled "Daughter won’t talk to Late Late intruder", referring to his daughter who was contracted to RTÉ.

Gda Callahan agreed that issues had been raised about his fitness to plead shortly after the incident but that his condition had improved while he was in custody in the Central Mental Hospital and although he was still ill, he was deemed fit to understand court proceedings.

Mr Gillane submitted that Stokes had descended into "chronic and serious illness" in the late 90s and at the time of these offences he was "very very sick".

He said he would give an undertaking to stay away from parties mentioned.