Businessman goes on trial for running brothels

A Dublin businessman has gone on trial for allegedly running brothels in the city centre five years ago.

Peter Thompson (aged 60) of Dorset Street Lower, has pleaded not guilty to running two brothels at Mary Street and Dorset Street on May 27, 2004, permitting these flats to be used as brothels and permitting habitual prostitution on these premises between January 1, 2002 and May 27, 2004.

A former brothel worker told prosecution counsel, Mr Vincent Heneghan BL in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, that she worked "once or twice" as a dominatrix in the flat above Hands hardware store on Dorset Street.

She said she did similar work above a tattoo parlour at the Mary Street premises and was paid €120 for a sex session, half of which she kept for herself and half she left on a counter in the "kitchen-cum-sitting-room".

The woman said a man known to her as "Tony" ran the business but that she never saw him and only spoke with him on the phone.

She described how "Tony" had arranged a specific job for her over the phone to "look after" a friend of his.

A 26-year-old Nigerian woman told Mr Heneghan that she had started working in the Mary Street premises a few days before gardai raided it on May 27, 2005.

She said customers would pay €120 for a half hour during which "they could get sex, a massage or a handjob". She said she received half of the money while the rest went to her employer.

She said she worked in the two-bedroom flat with two other "white girls" and gave their names. She said during her time working there, "seven or eight" men visited. She claimed she did not have sex with any of them and the last man to come in before the raid changed his mind because he was married.

The woman agreed with defence counsel, Mr Brefini Gordon BL, that she had made an asylum application in 2003 and had since been granted refugee status. She said she was not charged with any offence related to the alleged brothel.

A regular customer at the two premises told Mr Heneghan that he made a statement to gardai when they confronted him as he left the Mary St flat on May 5, 2004.

The man said he’d been visiting either flat once a month for two years and that he usually met with one girl "Diane" who told him she was from South Africa.

He agreed with Mr Gordon that he "got a fright" when gardaí confronted him as he walked to his car, adding that he freely admitted his involvement with the alleged brothel and hadn’t been prosecuted with any related offence.

The accused’s former tenant told Mr Heneghan that she lived in the flat complex on Dorset St and paid a weekly rent in cash to her landlord inside Hands hardware store, which he also owned.

The trial continues before Judge Desmond Hogan and a jury of eight men and four women.