Women convicted of running brothel from city apartment

Two women have been convicted at Galway District Court for running a brothel in a city apartment.

Victoria Osakpolor and Florintina Croitoru, both of 21 The Plaza Apartments, Headford Road pleaded guilty to the charge of keeping a brothel at that address on September 8 last.

Sergeant Finbarr Philpott, prosecuting, told Judge Mary Fahy that Gardaí had been informed that a brothel was being run at that address.

Investigating Gardaí spoke to some men seen leaving the premises and they admitted that they had engaged in sexual intercourse in exchange for cash.

Brian Gilmartin, defending Croitoru, said his client was a Romanian national who was a victim of economic circumstances.

She had come to Ireland to make more money – the average monthly salary in Romania was about €200, he said – as she had a daughter.

She was no longer living in Galway and had returned from Romania to meet the case, he added.

Judge Mary Fahy said that a lot of non-nationals leave children at home to seek work in other countries. She said that nobody had forced her into that particular work and that there was always a suspicion with people working in brothels that they would move on and set up in a different location.

Mr Gilmartin said his client had lodged a €1,000 cash bond but that her circumstances were poor. She had no previous convictions and had returned to Galway to meet the case, he stressed.

Osakpolor, aged 36, was an Italian national originally from Nigeria with third level qualifications.

Judge Fahy asked her if she realised that she was setting her own gender back by hundreds of years by engaging in this type (brothel) activity.

“I have no doubt that there are some men taking money from this type of operation and of course both they and the men who seek this service should be prosecuted also.

“Usually there’s a high level of criminals running these operations. Trafficking is different. Those women have no choice but this is not the case here,” added Judge Fahy.

The Court was told that Osakpolor now lived in Dublin.

They were each fined €800 with only €200 being returned to them from their cash bond. Recognisances were fixed at €1,000 cash bond.