A MAN who admitted running a network of brothels in Dublin has been sentenced to 2½ years in prison at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Mark McCormick (26) of Ballaghbeg Park, Newcastle, Co Down, was described as being “at the top of the ladder” in a prostitution ring that spanned Dublin city.
McCormick pleaded guilty to seven counts of acting or assisting in the management of a brothel at six locations in Dublin city centre on dates between November 6th, 2005, and April 3th, 2006.
Judge Tony Hunt called it an “operation of significant sophistication and detailed advanced planning”.
He noted it was a very profitable business, as demonstrated by a spreadsheet found showing profits of €220,000 to be split between three people.
He said McCormick used his computer knowledge to set up the brothel, and “structured his part in the operation to remain as much as possible in the shadows”.
Judge Hunt said it stood in the accused’s favour that there was no human trafficking or abuse of women involved, and that both customers and workers were willing participants.
He also took into account McCormick’s late guilty plea, and suspended the final 14 months of the sentence.
A co-accused, Duane Killen (37) of Oldtown Road, Annalong, Newry, Co Down, was given a suspended sentence last March for his role in renting Dublin apartments to be used as brothels. Det Garda Larry Duggan told Seán Guerin, prosecuting, that McCormick, who was just 22 at the time of the offences, was among the subjects of a major Garda investigation, Operation Quest, into the online advertisement of prostitution.
Det Garda Duggan told Mr Guerin that gardaí raided a number of premises, including apartments on Bachelors Walk and in Herbert Park, and placed several people under surveillance, including McCormick.
On March 8th, 2006, McCormick was brought to Store Street Garda station after he was observed having lunch with Killen and taking an envelope from him.
During an interview with McCormick, gardaí obtained a key for an apartment at the Gasworks building on South Lotts Road, which Det Garda Duggan described as the “nerve centre” of the operation. McCormick had previously been observed entering the building through an underground car park.
At the apartment gardaí found a laptop computer, which was open and logged on to an Irish escorts website. Det Garda Duggan said the laptop contained a manual with instructions on how to run a brothel.
Subsequent analysis of the laptop by a Garda technical expert revealed spreadsheets with names of prostitutes, dates and amounts of cash received, which were saved to the hard disk.