obsessed | 

Stalker who told gardai he would run over former neighbour targeted other innocent family

‘Next time I see her on the road I’m going to put the car through her. I’ll get a can of petrol and light it next to her’

Today at 10:48

A FIXATED stalker who told gardai that he would run over a former neighbour also targeted another innocent family due to his obsession with his victim.

In early December, Kildare man John Stokes (47), with an address at Ballymanor, Newbridge, was jailed for 18 months after he pleaded guilty to harassment by persistently following former neighbour Linda O’Keefe, watching or besetting her near her home on August 12, 13, 20 and 22, 2019.

When he was arrested by gardai, he said: “Next time I see her on the road I’m going to put the car through her. I’ll get a can of petrol and light it next to her.”

Stokes became obsessed with his victim after moving into the estate where she lived in Newbridge in 2014.

Infatuated Stokes went on to have completely unfounded beliefs that he was in some kind of romantic relationship with his victim and that she was involved with another person.

While his beliefs were not true, Stokes claimed to gardai that the reason he started following her was that although he had bought her “bracelets and stuff,” she went out with another man. He said he told her: “I didn’t do you up for another man.”

Asked by gardai if he was jealous of this man, Stokes told them: “Yes, of course I was jealous.”

The Sunday World can reveal that when Stokes was jailed in early December for harassing Ms O’Keefe, he was already serving a five-year sentence with two years suspended for other offences against her and another innocent family.

Ms O’Keefe had moved out of Newbridge to Kildare Town several years ago to get away from Stokes, thinking he wouldn’t track her down — but he did.

Stokes managed to get into the gated complex where she lived on August 18, 2018, and slashed all four of her car tyres and smashed her wing mirrors.

He was subsequently identified on CCTV and was arrested. He went back on November 21 and was again spotted on CCTV removing glass from her wing mirrors.

The Sunday World can also reveal that Stokes targeted another innocent family in Kildare due to his obsession with his victim.

He turned up in the early hours of the morning and caused damage on two separate occasions in 2018 outside the home of a husband and wife who lived in Naas with their children.

Stokes had targeted them because he wrongly convinced himself one of the people in the house was involved with Ms O’Keefe.

The first incident targeting the family took place on April 26, 2018. The family heard noises outside their home around 4.30am and 6am and the next morning a neighbour called to say their cars had been attacked.

The family came out and found that the windows of their cars had been smashed in with a blunt instrument.

They did not have CCTV at the time but gardai found a blood sample at the scene which was later traced to Stokes.

Before results came back on that, the terrified family installed CCTV at their home and on November 18, 2018, they once again heard noises outside their home.

The CCTV captured Stokes smashing the windows of their cars with an implement, causing thousands of euro of damage.

In victim impact statements, the family said they had lived in their home without incident for over 30 years before the attacks and that their children, who were awoken by the second incident, asked: “Has the bad man come back again?”

By the time he appeared in court in relation to the 2018 incidents Stokes had already had previous convictions for assault and criminal damage.

The sentencing judge for the 2018 offences listed the aggravating factors such as the level of premeditation and planning involved, including the targeting of people at their home, Stokes’ determination to enter into the locus in question, no restitution, the impact of the offences and Stokes’ previous convictions, in particular, for criminal damage.

Stokes was initially sentenced to six years with two-and-a-half years suspended but this was later reduced to five years with two years suspended.

The Sunday World recently reported how he was back before the courts in December for further harassment of Ms O’Keefe in 2019.

When he was questioned by gardai about one of the stalking incidents Ms O’Keefe had complained about, Stokes said: “This is getting out of hand.”

When asked what was getting out of hand, he retorted: “This interview. Go ahead with your questions. Linda O’Keefe being a lying, back-stabbing, two-faced bitch … Next time I see her on the road I’m going to put the car through her. I’ll get a can of petrol and light it next to her.”

In her victim impact statement, Ms O’Keefe said Stokes action had changed her life.

“The impact of the stalking and harassment John Stokes has put on me has caused me so much pain in my life. I was a very happy woman before this.

“Each day before I went out to work, I had to stand out on the balcony to check if I would spot him on my road, at my homeplace or outside my office.

“While I was suffering from his harassment, I had to move to a different town believing that John Stokes would not follow me.

“I planned on making a new life for myself in Kildare town. I was looking forward to the peace and quiet and I presumed the harassment would stop. I was wrong. I couldn’t go for a walk in broad daylight like every other woman.

“I would wake numerous times during the night thinking that he had gotten into my apartment and was going to kill me. I feared for my life … in fact I was terrified every single day. There were days I wished I wasn’t here anymore.”