Rapist fails to get term cut
A former Federal policeman and Customs official, who was jailed for 10 years for rape and fraud, has claimed to a court he has received threats that he will be set on fire in prison.
Stephen Michael Adams had appealed against his jail term, after admitting acting out his "seduction rape" fantasy on a terrified 19-year-old Finnish woman he abducted at gunpoint and then raped in West Perth in 2012.
Despite upholding part of his appeal, the WA Court of Appeal yesterday reinforced the 10-year jail term.
That was also in the face of Adams claiming he had been subject to threats of violence in the Special Purpose Unit at Casuarina Prison.
At his sentencing last year, the WA Supreme Court was told how Adams committed sophisticated frauds using identity details obtained via his job at the immigration department.
Then as a Customs officer he was tasked to watch hundreds of hours of pornography - and developed an "intense interest" in a "seduction rape scenario".
He carried that out by placing a BB gun inside his pants and confronting the teenager as she got off a bus in West Perth. After dragging the terrified young woman into an alleyway, he raped her twice, took her passport at knifepoint and warned her not to tell police.
After his arrest, searches uncovered what police described as Adams' "rape kit" - containing weapons, a disguise and the drug Viagra, as well as passenger cards with comments such as "short but stunning" and "great body".
Justice Ralph Simmonds said Adams had embarked on "deliberate, systematic and planned criminality", and jailed him for 10 years. But appeal lawyer Simon Watters argued the sentence had failed to take into account how Adams' would do "hard time" because of his former Australian Federal Police position.
In an affidavit, Adams said he had been the target of threats, despite his protective custody.
"After a prisoner was set on fire, I received a note saying 'You're next'," Adams said.
But Justice Robert Mazza noted prison authorities had denied the claim - describing Adams as "a highly unreliable historian".
Although the appeal court agreed Adams' time in jail would be harder for him than for other prisoners, the 10-year term was appropriate.
He will be eligible for parole in December 2020.
