Courts allow alleged brothel owner to keep profits

An application by the State for the confiscation of €670,000 as the estimated profits from five brothels run by a former cruise-ship chef has been refused by Judge Frank O’Donnell at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Paul Humphreys (aged 63), a native of Cork city centre, who received a two-year sentence and a €40,000 fine in May 2007 for running five brothels was estimated to have earned as much as €780,000 a year from them.