How the internet has cut a big loophole in the law on paid-for sex

THE laws on prostitution have been superseded by the growth of the internet.

Under the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act, 1993 it is illegal to:

* Solicit or importune for purposes of prostitution.

* Loiter for purposes of prostitution.

* Organise prostitution.

* Live on earnings of prostitution.

* Keep a brothel.

But it is not illegal to:

* Be a prostitute.

* Have sex for money.

* Advertise the services of prostitutes as long as the website is based outside the State.

The loophole means anyone with access to a computer can log on to the internet, do a simple search and within minutes make an appointment to have sex for money, all without any fear of prosecution.

The 2005 Garda Commissioner’s Report, the latest, showed that in that year, proceedings were commenced against 57 people for either soliciting or picking up prostitutes. There were 14 convictions, seven cases withdrawn and the rest pending.

There were 38 cases of loitering with the intention of prostitution — seven cases ended in conviction, three were withdrawn and the rest pending.

There were no cases of living on the earnings of prostitution. And there were three cases of brothel-keeping. Of those, only one case was commenced.

This low level of prosecutions is despite the fact there are approximately 100 escort agencies advertising on the internet across the country, many of which offer a choice of a number of women offering sex under one roof — to all intents and purposes, a brothel — and despite the fact there are huge numbers offering sex for money around the country.

The majority of the convictions have been in relation to women working on the streets — the visible sector.

The detection and prosecution of those using the services of the women and the women themselves would appear to be clear-cut. If a known prostitute gets into the car of a man, that is surely soliciting and importuning for the purposes of prostitution — two convictions in one move. However, the figures would not seem to bear that out.

The lack of prosecutions seems even less efficient when one considers there is a vice squad in Dublin where the biggest proportion of prostitutes exists.

Ruhama, which works with women involved in prostitution, wants the Swedish model to be implemented, whereby the customers are solely targeted because prostitution is seen as violence against the prostitute, even though he or she was not forced by that individual to engage in the activity.

Cork MEP Simon Coveney agrees. “I would like to see Irish law considering prostitutes as primarily victims of sexual abuse who need assistance and support from the State as opposed to criminal punishment. The truth for anybody who attempts to understand what drives somebody to prostitution is that in the vast majority of cases drug addiction, abuse, mental illness or severe social deprivation are what drive young women into the sex trade in the first place.”

Earlier this year, gardaí in Cork admitted they often circle known blocks in the city where street prostitutes linger, not just to deter the punters, but also to ensure that the women are safe. In Dublin they do the same. Some of the women see this as a blessing, knowing if a punter gets violent — and they regularly do — officers will be close by to respond.

Others see the garda presence as a scourge because it deters the punters from stopping.

Off the streets, the reality is that the lax laws mean those offering sex behind closed doors are thriving — and they are flooding into Ireland, either voluntarily or through trafficking, to earn an undetected fortune for themselves or their traffickers.

Escort-Ireland.com can get away with blatant advertising of sordid acts because it is run outside Ireland. Gardaí admit that renders the operators untouchable.

A woman from England can pay €100 a month to advertise on an escort website. The only detail she need give is the city where she is going to be working for a period. While she will have checked into the hotel in her own name — the working names they tend to use would arouse suspicion — the client will almost certainly never know, or want to know, her real identity.

One Eastern European woman, who regularly travels to Ireland from England for four-day periods of work at a time, was evicted from a well-known hotel in Cork by gardaí. The hotelier said staff were aware of the woman’s name and her aliases and she would not be allowed to check in if she approached the hotel reception. Despite this and despite being well known to the hotel, she tried to check in again.

It is worth the risk to the women as, if a hotel room is raided, gardaí will need explicit proof that a woman has advertised sex for money.

However, Brendan Howlin of the Labour Party contests the fact that the internet is a loophole. He said: “Section 23 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 punishes a person “who publishes or causes to be published or distributes or causes to be distributed an advertisement which advertises a brothel or the services of a prostitute in the State.”

This includes advertising or promotion by way of radio, television, computer monitor, telephone, facsimile transmission, photography or cinematography or other like means of communication. “So it is not immediately obvious to me where the defect in the law is to be found. I appreciate that websites may well be hosted on computers outside the State but if the advertisements are being placed for the benefit of persons operating inside the State, then an offence is being committed which should be capable of being investigated and prosecuted.”

The Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) of Ireland says, there is nothing it can do to stop a website hosted outside this country. “We have codes of practice which cover advertising and posting of illegal behaviour in this country,” said Paul Durrant of the ISPA. “However, we have no jurisdiction over what is posted in other jurisdictions, irrespective of what we think about it.

“If there is a potential crime being committed as a result of the advertising it is a matter for the gardaí.”

Mr Durrant said the real issue is that the sites are carefully managed for the law in the countries where they operate. He said they will not contain anything that is deemed to be illegal where they are hosted.

Under the ISPA Code of Practice “Members must use best endeavours to ensure that Services (excluding Third Party Content) and Promotional Material do not contain anything which is Illegal and is not of a kind likely to mislead by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, omission or otherwise.”

Where the ISPA’s codes of practice are breached, as would happen if prostitution was advertised, it would act quickly. “We would simply tell them to remove the material and if it was not we would remove it,” he said.

Many of the women on the websites give the impression that they are independent, have no one controlling what they do or where they work. However, it is generally accepted that a percentage of them, and it is a substantial percentage, are being controlled by a pimp.

Gerardine Rowley, of Ruhama, said many of them are controlled by people operating outside the State where they are less likely to be prosecuted. “They can sit with their runners who will take all the profits and get it back to them,” she said. “Often the women are simply given a bank account and a mobile phone number and they pay the profits into those accounts. They end up with no money themselves.” But according to gardaí, there are certainly many “homegrown pimps” operating around the country.

In recent months, four people have faced charges for brothel-keeping and organising prostitution and files on two other suspects are being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Last year, gardaí broke up two gangs of Romanians and Ukrainians suspected of trafficking women here for the sex industry and compiled files on eight suspects as part of Operation Hotel.

Five Romanian nationals were arrested in March on suspicion of involvement in trafficking and, in February, three Ukrainians were arrested.

Operation Hotel was established in November 2005 to target the trafficking of women from eastern Europe to work in the sex industry in Ireland. Gardaí said the women trafficked by the two gangs were believed to have come through Dublin Airport before they were placed in Dublin houses, which were set up like brothels.

However, senior gardaí admit there are loopholes in the law which allow people to escape prosecution. “We’re going to have people appear in court this year, but it’s very difficult to get prosecutions together,” Detective Superintendent John McKeon said last year. “It’s difficult enough because you have to get the prostitutes themselves to make statements saying they’re paying half their earnings to a pimp, or the person renting the apartment, or advertising the service.”