Fines for men who solicited sex from gardaí

A judge yesterday rejected a defence claim that a major Garda operation in Limerick in which gardaí posed as prostitutes was entrapment.

Convicting two men at Limerick District Court of soliciting sex from undercover gardaí, Judge Eugene O’Kelly said there was a particular scourge of prostitution on the streets of Limerick.

“I accept the gardaí are under considerable pressure to do something about this particular evil and I am satisfied they are entitled to mount the operation they did,” he said.

Timmy Costello, aged 53, of 10 Deerpark, Adare, and Patrick O’Doherty, aged 60, of 102 High Meadows, Gouldavoher, were each fined €250.

Both denied the charge.

Last December, 21 men pleaded guilty to the same offence.

All the arrests were made as part of Operation Freewheel, set up to fight street prostitution in the city.

In evidence yesterday, Garda Sharon Quirke said she went on plainclothes duty on the night of Nov 11, 2011, as part of an operation targeting prostitution in the city. She was dressed all in black.

Along with Garda Niamh Keogh, who was also in plain clothes, she took up a static position on Barrington St. At about 9.45pm a man, who she later found out was Timmy Costello, approached on foot and appeared to be very nervous.

He asked her was she working, had she a place close by, how much she charged for sex, and what would he get for €20.

She gave a tug to the top of her boot, which was a prearranged signal to colleagues in a nearby unmarked car who came and arrested Costello.

Garda Keogh said she wore jeans, brown jacket, and a scarf, for the operation. She said Costello appeared agitated.

During cross-examination by Brian McInerney, for both defendants, Garda Keogh said she remembered everything of the incident and it was not the kind of operation she did every day.

Garda Quirke, in relation to Patrick O’Doherty, said she went on a similar operation on Dec 3, 2011, having been briefed at Roxboro Garda Station. She was accompanied by Garda Liz Galvin.

Garda Quirke said she again wore all black.

O’Doherty approached her at 9.50pm and asked if she was working, what was on offer and how much she was charging for sex. She gave the pre-arranged signal and gardaí in an unmarked patrol car came and arrested O’Doherty.

Garda Galvin said she was wearing jeans and a black jacket when she took up duty with Garda Quirke. In reply to Mr McInerney, she said they were briefed that when on the operation they were to give brief answers to questions they were asked when approached by men.

Mr McInerney applied for the charges against both his clients to be dismissed, saying there was entrapment involved by agents of the State masquerading as something else, seeking to capture persons. This, he said, was an unfair process when applied by the State against its citizens.

He further submitted that the accounts given in court were unreliable as gardaí gave evidence which was not contained in their contemporaneous notes or their statements.

Mr McInerney said that to convict, the court would have to be satisfied there were three ingredients involved: Prostitution, soliciting, and importuning.

Judge O’Kelly, commending Mr McInerney on his research, dismissed his application for a dismissal.

He said the act referred to soliciting or importuning, not soliciting and importuning, and there was evidence of soliciting.