Thomas Banks was the ex-husband of Eva Santiago and stepfather of Cory Santiago, and the prime suspect in Cory's rape. He was also a member of Kevin O'Donnell's pro child-adult relationship civil rights group, Our Special Love.
Background[]
Thomas met Eva while she was living in a shelter that he volunteered at. He married Eva and adopted her son, letting them move in her home. After Eva started using sleeping pills to treat the insomnia she developed at the shelter, Thomas took advantage of her newfound sleep to molest Cory and take pictures of him naked. During this time, Thomas infected Cory with an STD. Thomas also forbade his stepson from telling his mother, by threatening to send him back to the shelter if he went to jail.
Hardwired[]
After Cory's STD was discovered, as well as the history of his wrestling coach, SVU interviewed the Banks family and Thomas allowed them to believe this but when Cory was needed to reveal his side Thomas sternly cut the interview short to deny the allegations. However, the detectives realize from his reaction that he was the prime culprit and after gathering enough evidence, Stabler proceeded to arrest him while exposing his actions to his co-workers, who were shocked and one revealed his laptop containing the pictures.
However, Thomas managed to make a deal by offering up Kevin O'Donnell and his pedophile network to avoid the long term sentence.
After O'Donnell was incriminated, he was arrested for possession of child pornography and accessory to rape, Thomas was also arrested for the rape. Before he is taken away, Eva personally stabbed him in his shoulder for what he did to her son. After Thomas was treated, he was convicted of child rape in the first degree and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. Eva also proceeded to withdraw all of his money, which she used to move her and Cory to Florida.