A MAN who has made a €1 million settlement with the Criminal Assets Bureau has been jailed for 15 months after pleading guilty to brothel-keeping and organising prostitution in Cork city.
Tony Linnane (54), Scartbarry, Watergrasshill, Co Cork, had pleaded guilty last month to 19 counts of brothel-keeping and organising prostitution at Grafton Street and Lower John Street in Cork city in 2006 and 2007.
At Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday, Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin sentenced Linnane to two years in jail but suspended the final nine months. He said he was taking into account the fact that Linnane had agreed to pay over €1 million to Cab.
He also made it a condition of the suspension that Linnane have no association for three years with his business adviser, Dr Michael Grimes.
Dr Grimes had an office on Tramore Road and Linnane had used him to structure his business so as to hide his profits from prostitution by mixing them with profits from his legal sex shops.
Linnane’s partner, Caroline O’Leary (39), was remanded in custody last month after she was convicted of seven counts of acting or assisting in the management of brothels. Judge Ó Donnabháin yesterday sentenced her to two years but suspended the balance of the term.
Judge Ó Donnnabháin said if it wasn’t for the fact that O’Leary had no previous convictions and the couple had two young children, she would have also received a custodial sentence.
Julieanne Gibson (41) a mother of seven from Springvale, Old Youghal Road, Cork, was given an 18-month suspended sentence after she pleaded guilty to five counts of acting or assisting in the management of both the Grafton Street and John Street brothels.
Insp Declan O’Sullivan told the court how gardaí raided 15 premises on November 20th, 2006, and seized documents, copying equipment and computers.
They found a live link between cameras hidden in sockets in the rooms in the brothels and Linnane’s house which was streaming what was happening in the brothels to his house and they also found still shots of clients with some of the prostitutes.
Gardaí found that some 190 men had visited the Grafton Street brothel in the week before the raids and 74 had visited the John Street brothel, paying on average €150 a visit.
Insp O’Sullivan agreed with Tom Creed, defending, that none of the women working in the brothels had been trafficked or forced into working there.
He added that Linnane had alerted gardaí on three occasions when clients asked to be introduced to children.
Gibson was paid a nominal fee to organise rotas and provide towels and manage the brothels on a daily basis, the court heard.