Woman arrested after raid on suspected brothel

GARDAÍ have arrested a woman and questioned a man following a raid on a community housing group home which was allegedly being used as a brothel.

The house close to the centre of Enniscorthy in Co Wexford had been under garda surveillance for the past 10 days. Complaints about the same house were received by gardaí in mid-November of last year. But no arrests were made at that time.

The house on Daphanie View was raided around lunchtime on Thursday. A man who was being entertained by the middle-aged woman upstairs in the house was spoken to by gardaí. His name and address were taken and he was released.

In a follow-up search of the house, gardaí removed a large quantity of fantasy toys and fetish equipment. The raid took place as the woman, who is originally from Dublin, was held for questioning for six hours.

A file on the matter is now being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The woman's daughter was in the house at the time, along with her two young children. The children, one of whom is aged just four months, have been taken into care by the South Eastern Health Board. Enniscorthy Urban District Council, the anti-poverty group, Respond, and the gardaí in the Co Wexford town have all been investigating claims that the house of alleged disrepute has been operating in the normally quiet, residential area of the town.

Suspicions were aroused when neighbours in the 300-house estate, which features sheltered accommodation, as well as local authority and private homes, complained to the gardaí and urban council about activity in and around the property particularly at night.

The property is owned by the anti-poverty group, Respond.

Its local head of operations, Ned Brennan said that if any tenant was convicted of an offence which brought the organisation into disrepute, then the organisation's policy was to issue a notice to quit.