Brothel keeper enters guilty plea midway through trial

A brothel keeper who beat his prostitutes and threatened to starve one if she did not bring in more business has entered a guilty plea in the middle of his trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today.

After discussions between the parties, Mihai Selaru (aged 37) of Gateway Crescent, Ballymun pleaded to one charge of keeping a brothel in the city centre.

Prosecuting counsel, Mr Patrick McGrath BL, indicated he would be applying to have the remaining charges struck out on a later date.

The Romanian national had pleaded not guilty to organising prostitution, keeping a brothel and living off the proceeds of prostitution between September 3 to 11, 2009 at an apartment on Liberty Square, James Joyce Street.

It was halfway through day three of his trial when Selaru told his counsel he wanted to change his plea. The charges were read out again in front of the jury and after a pause, Selaru answered guilty to the charge of brothel keeping.

Judge Patrick McCartan thanked the jury for their time and remanded Selaru in custody with consent to bail until sentencing later this month.

He also gave permission to Selaru to hand over a letter via gardaí, to his former-fiancé who had worked as a prostitute for him.

The 30-year-old Romanian woman had given evidence earlier in the trial that she had to hand over all the money she got from clients to her fiancé. When he suspected her of been in love with another man who was involved in the brothel, he beat her and made her kiss his runners.

She said it was a very violent relationship and he would “take advantage of” and humiliate her. When gardaí raided the apartment they found the woman in a bedroom having sex with a customer while Selaru sat in the living room.

A 26-year-old woman, also from Romania, told the court that Selaru promised to get her a cleaning job in Ireland paying €350 a week. She said she arrived with his fiancé and a man came to take their pictures to be uploaded to a website called Escort Ireland.

This is when she realised she would be working as a prostitute, she told the court.

She said she had no money and was not allowed to leave the apartment unaccompanied. She also said Selaru or his fiancé would listen at the door when she called her husband in Romania.

She told the court that at one point Selaru told her she was scaring clients off because she was crying all the time and that she was bringing bad luck. He threatened that, because she was not bringing in any money, he would not give her any food.

When she worked for Selaru she had sex with several men who got her number from the Escort Ireland website. She charged €130 for half an hour and said she had to hand it all over to Selaru.

She said one day she had an argument with Selaru and ran out of the apartment. She ran into a garda on the street and told her about the brothel.

The woman claimed she had no idea she would be working as a prostitute in Ireland.

This was disputed by Selaru’s fiancé who said it had been planned out in Romania with everyone’s consent. She said she and Selaru met the woman and her husband through a Romanian sex website.