Eight years for tying up and robbing prostitute

A prostitute working alone in the Metropole Hotel, Cork, was tied up with cables from her phone and computer chargers and put into a bath with a towel over her head as two men robbed her of €4,000 cash and other items.

Yesterday, Lithuanian national Gediminas Zigmantas was jailed for eight years for the crime.

Detective Sergeant Vincent O’Sullivan testified at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday that Zigmantas, aged 34, falsely imprisoned and robbed the woman.

He found the woman’s number online, went to the room, and paid her €200 for an hour. He said he was too drunk to engage in sexual activity so she massaged him and they talked. When it was time for him to leave, he let his accomplice in.

They attacked her, tied her up, and put her into the bath with a towel over her head.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin said: “This was a very nasty type of offence. False imprisonment is particularly heinous and worrying type of offence. There was a level of planning and organisation in this. It was a well-planned organisation to overpower a woman on her own.

“They put her through a terrifying assault tying her up and putting her in the bath. She simply did not know what was going to happen and they did not tell her. This showed a complete level of disregard for another human being.”

Once the accused saw CCTV of himself entering and leaving the hotel he accepted his involvement and pleaded guilty. The other man has not yet been brought before the court.

Zigmantas got a five-year sentence with the last 18 months suspended last week for a similar crime committed in a hotel in Ennis.

The address on Zigmantas’s charge sheet is 118 Elm Park, Wilton, Cork. He has been living in Ireland for 10 years.

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