Mike Hogan was described in court yesterday as a married man and the father of three children. He was said to have no interest in the advertisements for brothels and the services of prostitutes other than the profit from those advertisements.
Introduced by his counsel as "a successful businessman", Hogan has been variously described as an entrepreneur, a former director of Capital Radio, now FM104, a publisher and latterly a dot.com [Internet companies] investor.
When he purchased Magill magazine in 1998, it was claimed it was his 38th publication under the umbrella of his Hoson Publications group. Other titles include the GAA monthly High Ball and the official Boyzone magazine, Boyzone, as well as Deadline, a media magazine, and dot.com, a magazine which arrives by email.
Hogan's entrepreneurial flair was evident at the age of 14 when he ran discos in his home town of Athy, Co Kildare. At 21 he joined Sunshine Radio as a sales representative and a year later became general manager of the rival station, Nova, where he doubled as the original "eye in the sky" providing early morning traffic reports from a helicopter.
His radio career continued with a move to the Dublin-based Capital Radio but he later admitted making a mistake with regard to content on Capital Radio and stepped down from his position as chief executive. After that he moved into the publishing business with a number of in-house and trade publications.
He has acknowledged nearly losing the deal to buy Magill after breaking off negotiations with the former owner, Vincent Browne, to go home to play with his children. He is married to former model and PR consultant Mari O'Leary.
He became friendly with Mr Ciaran Haughey during his helicopter days and has remained friendly with the Haughey family ever since.