THE STATE’S leading group assisting women involved in prostitution says that while the details of the oppression and violence inflicted by TJ Carroll and his associates are shocking, they are far from uncommon.
Ruhama, a Dublin-based voluntary organisation, says many international and Irish-organised gangs are now conspiring to traffic women into Ireland for sexual exploitation at a time when prosecutions for trafficking are non-existent.
The group’s spokesperson Gerardine Rowley said the key control mechanisms used by TJ Carroll’s gang and those he worked with – debt bondage, voodoo rituals and threats of violence – are often experienced by African women trafficked to Ireland.
“Some are also undocumented and they are afraid to go to the gardaí,” Rowley says of the victims. “In many cases they come from countries where the authorities like police forces are corrupt so they don’t think of going to the police.
“But really they’re trapped in their minds from fear and intimidation. They are so oppressed they’re not able to get away themselves and ask for help.”
The TJ Carroll case underlined not only the extent of sexual exploitation in Ireland, but also how sophisticated and lucrative it has become. Rowley says Ruhama assisted the women identified as having been trafficked into Carroll’s empire, six of whom are still in Ireland and have various immigration statuses.
“We saw the human face of these crimes. We saw the impact it had on the women and children, because two of the victims we saw were minors. It’s a wake-up call not only in terms of prioritising policing but also in terms of prioritising services to support victims of these crimes.”
Ruhama initially had “great hopes” for the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act. But two years after its enactment, while charges for brothel-keeping and controlling prostitution are regularly before the courts, no trafficking cases have progressed.
“Without total enforcement of the legislation we’re not going to have a deterrent and we’re still going to be an attractive place for criminals to exploit women in the sex trade and make huge amounts of money, which cases like the Carroll case are showing,” adds Rowley
Even operations much smaller than the network built up by TJ Carroll can be extremely lucrative.
Last week the High Court heard evidence from Det Garda Lucy Myles, of the Criminal Assets Bureau, that a Chinese woman being targeted by the bureau had made more than €1 million in recent years through running one “massage parlour” on Thomas Street in Dublin’s south inner city.
Det Garda Myles said Junxiu Hua, a convicted brothel keeper, held a number of bank accounts in different financial institutions here, and between November 2004 and April 2008 a total of €1,251,834.65 passed through them.
Gerardine Rowley says such cases, where key figures are in control of women and are becoming rich, are now the norm.
Women are operating from brothels in apartments and houses across the country. The majority are controlled in some way by Irish or foreign third parties, either by traditional pimp-style figures taking some of their earnings or by others charging grossly inflated fees to rent the properties being used as brothels, or for advertising space on websites known to advertise sexual services.
Rowley is calling for more proactive policing of Ireland’s prostitution trade and for regular raids on known brothels and other locations linked to all forms of sexual exploitation.
In its biennial report for 2007-2008, Ruhama revealed that 100 of the 431 women it helped during the two-year period were victims of trafficking, the majority from Nigeria. Six of those were aged under 18 years when they were brought to Ireland and forced to have sex with men.
