A MAN kicked and punched a £150 an hour "escort" when she tried to stop him taking photographs of her lying naked in Dublin hotel bedroom, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has been told.
An unemployed Kildare man, James Byrne, had first met the middle class and "cultured" housewife at the Gentlemen's Club escort agency after responding to the agency's advert in the fortnightly In Dublin magazine, Garda Fiona Cornally said.
Byrne (47) continued to see the woman for six months and felt romance was blossoming. He paid £150 an hour for their meetings and they had sexual intercourse on an ongoing basis.
The woman received £90 and the agency received £60. A total of 12 women worked for the agency and Judge Cyril Kelly estimated the owner could make up to £720 an hour on a busy day.
During the period the woman moved to the Ambassador escort agency and continued seeing Byrne.
In reply to Judge Kelly, Garda Cornally said she could not say if In Dublin was "just an advertisement space for prostitutes". She agreed, however, that prostitution was illegal.
Garda Cornally said most of these "escort" agencies were based on the south side of the city.
Byrne, single of Standhouse Road, Newbridge, Co Kildare, paid more than £1,000 into Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for transmission to the woman and his case was adjourned on bail to December 8th to allow him to raise another £2,500.
He pleaded guilty to assaulting the woman, occasioning her actual bodily harm, in Jurys Inn, Christchurch, Dublin, on March 27th, 1996.
A charge of false imprisonment of the woman on the same occasion was not proceeded with by the State.
Mr Seamus Sorahan SC, defending, said he had arranged with the prosecution that the victim would not be named in open court to avoid her further distress.
Garda Cornally said the woman's partner and her children had no idea about the nature of her part time work and she was terrified they would find out.
A week after the assault, gardai raided Byrne's home and found the photographs and negatives he had taken in the hotel bedroom. They also found documentation containing information on the woman's partner and children as well as unconnected magazines.
Garda Cornally also agreed with Mr George Birmingham, prosecuting, there had been "a degree of contact following the incident and the woman was concerned in case any contact from the defendant ht reveal her activities to her family.
Judge Kelly ordered the seized information relating to the woman should be returned to her or destroyed. He also warned Byrne not to contact or beset the victim, her family or friends or to get anyone else to do so on his behalf.
"I will make no moral judgment on any impropriety of a respectable housewife from a salubrious part of Dublin earning money as an escort," said Judge Kelly. However, he said such services had "underworld" connotations.
Judge Kelly also said that apart from the obvious risks to escorts they could also be open to "grossest possibility of blackmail".
He noted the owner of the agency in this case received £60 and the escort £90 "for whatever services an escort was presumed to provide".
Judge Kelly inquired whether the magazines seized in the raid were pornographic but added he would not expect the prosecution to define pornography, as it would take too long.
Mr Birmingham said the State was not concerned with the magazines or a video camera and they would be returned to Byrne.
Garda Cornally told Mr Birmingham that Byrne and the woman checked into the hotel at 12.30 p.m. and went to the bedroom. They had a lot of drink, including gin, and had sex.
Later, the woman was lying face down asleep on the bed but awoke on seeing the flashes of Byrne's camera. When she tried to take the camera off him, she was thrown against the wall, punched in the face several times and kicked.
An English couple in the next bedroom heard her screams and raised the alarm. Byrne was held by security men as he was hurrying half dressed from the building.
Garda Cornally said the woman was initially reluctant to tell the gardai anything and was brought to hospital complaining of feeling unwell.
The next day she called to gardai in Pearse Street by appointment and made a statement. Byrne was in the vicinity outside the Garda station and when arrested, he declined to answer any questions.
Mr Sorahan said both parties had taken a lot of alcohol. Byrne had openly booked the room in his own name on this occasion, as he had done a month previously. He had not hired it for any "sadistic" purposes, counsel said.
Mr Sorahan said Byrne felt a romantic relationship had blossomed with the woman.
Judge Kelly noted she, on the other hand, had approached the relationship from the "cold detachment of business".
The garda agreed with Mr Sorahan that the woman was also "well educated, well cultured and spoken".
Mr Sorahan stressed his client had only two previous convictions. One was a road traffic matter and the other was the larceny of golf clubs.
His elderly father and mother were aware of the case and his father had come to court to give evidence if necessary.
However, Byrne had not required his father to stay in court for the hearing in order not to distress him further.
Byrne had got a "taste of justice" having been in custody for three weeks on remand. He did not have a "hardened secret sex life" and was ashamed of his actions.
He realised taking the photographs had been "despicable conduct and a low trick", said Mr Sorahan.
From the witness box, Byrne apologised to the woman and to hiss elderly parents for the embarrassment he had caused. He also undertook not to contact the victim or her family.