LONDON -- St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, may well have been a tax collector for the Romans who fled to Ireland where he could have traded slaves to pay his way, according to new research by a University of Cambridge academic published on Saturday.

The generally accepted account of the saint's life, albeit based on scant evidence, says Patrick was abducted from western Britain as a teenager and forced into slavery in Ireland for six years during which time he developed a strong Christian faith.

Afterwards, the account continues, he escaped his captors and went back to Britain before eventually returning to Ireland as a missionary.

But Roy Flechner, from the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Cambridge, believes there are reasonable grounds to question the popular version which is based partly on Patrick's own words.

"The problem with this account is that he was telling this story in response to accusations leveled against him that he fled to Ireland for financial gain," Flechner told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"It's an inference that has been made long before in conventional scholarship."

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According to the study, published on Saturday to coincide with St. Patrick's Day, the saint may have wanted to leave Britain in the early 400s to avoid the "onerous" duties of a "Decurion", or Roman official responsible for collecting taxes.

Patrick's father was a Decurion and, when he decided to rid himself of the post by becoming a cleric, his responsibilities would have fallen to his son.

Slaves were his 'liquid assets'
At a time when Roman government in Britain was in decline, collecting and underwriting taxes would have been an unwelcome task, enough to prompt Patrick to emigrate, Flechner said.

"It is likely that at least for a while he (Patrick) held an imperial office. One way or another, I think this would have been the catalyst for him leaving for Ireland."

The academic also questioned Patrick's own account of escaping slavery in Ireland.

"Once you escaped from slavery you lacked any legal status and anyone could imprison you and kill you, and this conflicts with what he said -- that he broke loose, crossed Ireland and then the Irish Sea to get back to Britain," he explained.

"He might not even have been acknowledged as a free man in his native Britain and could have been enslaved again there."

If Patrick had left Britain for Ireland of his own free will, the best way to take his wealth with him would be in the form of slaves, Flechner argued.

Patrick himself said his family owned slaves, which was common for aristocratic families in this period.

"Your property would have been hereditary and in the form of land, but if you had wanted to transport the value of the property, it is more likely you would have traded a more 'liquid asset', in this case slaves.

"In a slightly later period where we do have more sources, slaves had become a very important social institution and quite ubiquitous in Ireland."

Flechner conceded that it was difficult to be sure of any theory about a period of British history covered by so little reliable material.

But he added that his study had the advantage of being "free from the more reverential accounts of St. Patrick that have been handed down in legend through the generations.

"In this case we are seeing Patrick through the eyes of Roman law which offers a new perspective.

"None of this is to say that Patrick was not a bishop or that he did not engage in missionary activity, but his primary motives for moving to Ireland were most likely to escape the poisoned chalice of his inherited position in Roman Britain."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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LONDON -- Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was bundled into the back of a police car to escape protesters after a speaking engagement at Britain's Cambridge University on Friday that angered women's rights activists.

About 150 demonstrators, waving banners and chanting "2, 4, 6, 8, no more violence, no more rape" had circled the Cambridge Union Society where Strauss-Kahn delivered a speech on globalization and the Eurozone to a select group of students.

As the French economist left, the angry crowd, shouting references to New York hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo who accused him of sexual assault, tried to scale barricades guarded by police and security officers set up to protect him.

Placards were thrown at the car and protesters scuffled with officers as he was whisked away.

"I don't think he should have been invited here to speak to students," student Morgan Wild, 23, told Reuters. "I think it's part of a crass PR campaign to rehabilitate his reputation and we shouldn't be taken for fools."

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"It's got nothing to do with freedom of speech," said student Francesca Williams, 21. "They're inviting a man who hates women. I don't think DSK should be given the privilege of speaking in front of a private audience."

Cambridgeshire Police said a 19-year-old man was arrested for assaulting a police officer and a woman, 22, was detained for a breach of the peace. Two others were arrested on Friday morning after banners were plastered all over the Union Society building.

The Cambridge News website displayed photos showing its walls defaced with messages including "DSK GO AWAY" and "WOMEN DESERVE BETTER."

'Flabbergasted'
There was tight security inside the venue with the gray-haired Strauss-Kahn flanked by four burly men during his speech and 25 guards brought in for the occasion.

But even within the historic 19th century building, where politicians such as British wartime leader Winston Churchill have addressed students, he was unable to escape controversy.

One student asked him to explain vaginal bruising suffered by Nafissatou Diallo, the maid behind the sexual assault allegations who is now pursuing civil claims against Strauss-Kahn in New York.

"The reality is that I spent a week in prison. There hasn't been a prosecution," he replied to a rapt audience listening over the faint shouts and sirens heard from outside.

Diallo's lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, spoke to about 100 Cambridge students and journalists on her behalf at a rival event earlier Friday.

According to the Guardian newspaper, Wigdor said he was "flabbergasted" at the invitation. He called it "an affront to all victims of sexual crimes."

"The history of Cambridge and the history of the union are now interspersed with Strauss-Kahn. I don't blame Strauss-Kahn. I blame the union," he said.

A statement posted Friday on the Cambridge union's website said the invitation was made well before Strauss-Kahn's controversial departure from the IMF. His experience in French politics mean that he was "exceptionally well qualified" to speak on the financial crisis and the French presidential election, it said.

Some of those attending the speech, many of them economics or politics students, agreed. They said they wanted to hear about Strauss-Kahn's experiences in the IMF and politics, not his personal life.

"This is a forum for free speech," said politics student Milad Matin, 21. "It's not a value judgement. I'm not endorsing rape by watching him speak."

Strauss-Kahn held in French prostitution probe

Strauss-Kahn has mostly kept a low profile since New York prosecutors dismissed charges of attempted rape and sexual assault against him in August, based on concerns about Diallo's credibility. But in recent months he has rejoined the international speech circuit.

Though the criminal case is over, the first civil court hearing over Diallo's claims is scheduled for March 28.

Strauss-Kahn was also held for two days in January in a police station in the northern French city of Lille, where investigators questioned him about allegations that a prostitution ring organized by his business acquaintances provided women for clients of Lille's Carlton Hotel.

Police want to establish whether Strauss-Kahn knew that women at parties he attended in Lille, Paris and Washington were prostitutes. His lawyer has said Strauss-Kahn had no reason to think so.

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Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.