Court orders brothel keeper to forfeit €252k in assets

A court has ordered a brothel keeper whose prostitution operation took in up to €4m a year to forfeit over €252,000 in assets.

49 year old Martin "The Beast" Morgan pleaded not guilty to organising prostitution and running a brothel at Bachelor’s Walk apartment in Dublin city centre on dates from August 22 to October 10, 2005.

Mr Morgan with addresses at Herbert Lane, Ballsbridge and Blackstock Road, London, and formerly of Blacksheep Road, Blanchardstown, was convicted by a jury in 2008 and served a three year jail term imposed by Judge O'Donnell.

He ran a brothel and prostitution business in Dublin city centre, described previously by Judge Frank O’Donnell as a "magnificent operation, highly sophisticated and highly rewarding and not a petty little business working on a shoe string."

Today Judge Desmond Hogan granted an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to confiscate assets of €252,908, a 1996 Jaguar car and cash found on Morgan.

He also ordered that Morgan should pay the legal costs of the application.