Waterford businessman found guilty of rape

A Waterford businessman has been convicted of raping a Croatian prostitute in a local upmarket hotel after he hired her by phone through a Cork based escorts agency.

Billy Keogh (aged 46), a married man and father of six, of Wilder, Kilmeaden was found guilty by a jury at the Central Criminal Court of raping the 26-year-old woman who claimed he told her he was a garda and also threatened to throw her out of the hotel window.

Mr Justice Barry White directed that Keogh’s name be placed on the register of sex offenders and remanded him on continuing bail for sentence later.

The jury of six men and six women had earlier found him not guilty of stealing €1,200 cash from the woman who was working for the Red Velvets Escorts Agency based in Cork.

Keogh denied both charges during his six-day trial. The jury returned its 10-2 majority guilty verdict that he raped the woman on May 21, 2006 following about six hours deliberation and after one night in a hotel.

He told gardaí he was a respectable Waterford businessman and had been using the Red Velvets agency for two years to have paid sex with prostitutes assigned by it.