A man who claimed to have worked as a movie stand-in for Brad Pitt has been jailed for rape after he deceived his then-partner into believing he had used a condom while having sex.
Luke Ford, 35, was sentenced to 16 years in custody for a sustained campaign of abuse against multiple women, including Scotland’s first prosecution for “stealthing” – having unprotected intercourse when a partner consented to sex only if a condom was used – which is rape.
Ford was given a 21-year extended sentence with 16 years in custody at the high court in Edinburgh on Wednesday after he was found guilty of 19 charges involving violence, sexual assault, threats and abuse against women, including seven rape charges.
Prosecutions for stealthing are extremely rare, which police have ascribed to underreporting and women not being aware that it is a crime.
In earlier proceedings, the court heard that Ford had subjected his nine victims to physical, mental and sexual abuse over a 12-year period, targeting women on dating apps, showering them with affection then financially exploiting, controlling and abusing them.
The court heard that Ford, from Stirling, was a jobbing actor and model, and featured as a stand-in for Brad Pitt on the film World War Z, shot in Glasgow in 2013.
One rape victim, whom he met on Tinder in 2017, stipulated he must use protection because she did not want to risk pregnancy, to which he responded: “good idea”.
In bed, she handed him a condom, which he later told her he had not used. She said: “I was shocked and upset. I would not have had sex with him without a condom. I asked him to leave. I felt completely violated.”
When she confronted him the following day, Ford dismissed her as “paranoid”, saying that it was “no big deal” and to take the morning-after pill.
Scotland’s procurator fiscal for high court sexual offending, Katrina Parkes, said the stealthing prosecution demonstrated a commitment “to use every tool at our disposal to secure justice for victims”.
Parkes said: “It is significant that amongst the many offences he committed our prosecutors were able to prove rape in Ford’s failure to use a condom during sex – without the consent of his then-partner.
“This demonstrates the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Services’ commitment to continued development in the way sexual offences are prosecuted.”
There have been only two previous successful prosecutions in the UK, both in England – in 2019 and earlier this year.
