Woman jailed for three months for operating brothel

A 34-year-old Romanian woman has been sentenced to three months in prison for operating a brothel in Galway city.

Monica Ciuciu of 33 Cois Clair, Claregalway, and with a former rental address at Apartment 3, 15 Mary Street, Galway, pleaded guilty at Galway District Court yesterday to acting or assisting in the management of the brothel at the Mary Street address on February 12 last, contrary to Section 11 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993.

Judge Conal Gibbons said he did not believe Ciuciu when she said she had three children in Romania and had been working as a cleaner in Dublin for two weeks before coming to Galway to operate the brothel.

He said he did not believe her either when she said she met an unnamed person in Dublin and travelled to Galway, where she met a woman named Tina who left a key in a letterbox at the Mary Street address for her.

Ciuciu told the court she had operated the brothel on her own at the Mary Street apartment and did not know Tina’s surname.

Judge Conal Gibbons did not believe Ciuciu’s story and he remanded her in Garda custody to give a man who had accompanied her to court time to get proof of the children’s existence in Romania.

When the matter was recalled later yesterday, solicitor Ronan Murphy produced photographs of the children.

Judge Gibbons said he was not being told the truth for some reason and he did not believe Ciuciu’s story about the woman named Tina.

Judge Gibbons said he wanted to know whether Ciuciu was “part and parcel” of the brothel operation or if she was a victim.

Mr Murphy said his client had pleaded guilty to running the brothel and she was doing so on her own as a sole trader.

“She is telling lies. I wish she didn’t tell me lies,” Judge Gibbons said before sentencing Ciuciu to three months in prison. Leave to appeal was granted.

Fellow Romanian and co-accused Ioan Bizau, 28, is also in custody charged with assisting in the operation of the brothel.