A man who leased a premises used as a brothel in Dublin has been given a two-year suspended sentence and fined €3,000 by Judge Desmond Hogan.
Peter McCormack (44), Lawnswood Grove, Stillorgan, but originally from Larne, Co Antrim, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to organising prostitution between September 10th, 1999, and April 14th, 2000.
McCormack, a married father- of-three and a former restaurant and bar manager, controlled the activities which went on in the premises off Camden Street near the city centre. He has no previous conviction. He is a former RUC police reservist.
Another charge of allowing premises in which he was a tenant to be used as a brothel was taken into consideration.
Det Garda Seán Cullen told Mr Brendan Grehan SC, prosecuting, that McCormack was the 12th and final person prosecuted under Operation Gladiator, a massive Garda investigation into prostitution in Dublin.
Men leaving were interviewed and admitted receiving sexual favours for money while several of the women who worked there were observed going to an apartment at Bishop's Meade near the Coombe which gardaí claimed was used as a clearing house for the brothel.
Gardaí found a number of the women in the apartment on April 14th, 2000, and also recovered paperwork regarding the Camden Street brothel, along with nine mobile phones and cash.
Seven of the nine mobile phones recovered contained numbers which related to the Camden Court premises. Callers were put through to an answering service for the brothel.
McCormack was also present and was arrested but failed to make admissions surrounding his business though interviewed a number of times. McCormack was also observed regularly entering and leaving.
Judge Hogan said McCormack had pleaded guilty to a serious offence, but had come to court and ultimately pleaded guilty, sparing the embarrassment of a number of men being forced to give evidence at a trial.
"He has no previous convictions and it does appear he has now ceased his activities and gone into legitimate business with his wife," he said. "I don't propose to impose a custodial sentence, but I do have to mark the seriousness of the crime."
Det Garda Cullen said all the brothel advertisements were published in In Dublin magazine and gardaí were able to set up surveillance operations on a number of premises throughout the city.
The magazine's publisher was one of those prosecuted under Operation Gladiator.
Mr Hugh Hartnett SC, for McCormack, said his client was introduced to prostitution by another man, who was arrested but never charged.
McCormack was no longer involved in the sex industry and was now running a bed-and-breakfast with his wife.
They were only recently married but had children.