A Co Down man who admitted running a network of brothels in Dublin has been sentenced to two and a half years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Mark McCormick (26) of Ballaghbeg Park, Newcastle was described as being “at the top of the ladder” in an organised prostitution ring that spanned the breadth of 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 various dates between November 6th, 2005 and April 3rd, 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 which shows 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, was given a suspended sentence last March for his role in renting Dublin apartments to be used as brothels.
Detective Garda Larry Duggan told prosecuting counsel Sean Guerin BL that McCormick, who was just 22 at the time of the offences, was among the subjects of a major garda investigation into the online advertisement of prostitution known as Operation Quest.
Det Gda Duggan told Mr Guerin that as part of their investigations gardai 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 Mr Killen and taking a brown 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 Gda 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 Gda Duggan said that the laptop contained a manual with instructions on how to run a brothel which was saved under the name 'Bible'.
He said the laptop also detailed a shopping list for items needed to run a brothel and contained several bogus references for Mr Killen
Subsequent analysis of the laptop by a Garda technical expert revealed that spreadsheets detailing the names of prostitutes, dates and amounts of cash received were also saved to the hard disk.
One of the spreadsheets indicated that takings of €25,000 were recorded for the month of January alone. Fingerprints found on the laptop matched those of McCormick.
Gardaí also examined a mobile phone bill found at the apartment which recorded €4,000 in calls for the months of January and February 2006.
Det Gda Duggan agreed with defence counsel Remy Farrell BL that McCormick’s plea of guilty saved the court proceeding with a trial which would have been of great complexity.
He agreed that McCormick also saved the brothel clientele from the considerable embarrassment of having to give evidence in court.
Det Gda Duggan rejected the suggestion that McCormick’s father, who was convicted of organising prostitution in 2003, was regarded by many of the prostitutes working in the brothels as the “owner”.
Det Gda Duggan told Judge Tony Hunt: “This man is at the top of the ladder, there is no one above him.”
However, Det Gda Duggan conceded that some of the prostitutes were of the opinion that McCormick’s father owned the apartments where they worked.
Mr Farrell reminded the court that McCormick had pleaded not guilty to a charge of directing prostitution and strenuously denied any involvement in this.
Det Gda Duggan agreed with Mr Farrell that the women had come to work in the brothels of their own volition and there was no “hold” on them.