Daily Archives: February 5, 2010

The Happy Hooker – I think not.

The image of the happy hooker as portrayed by Julia Roberts in the film Pretty Woman is in reality far from the truth.

“Escorts” as they were called who worked for TJ Carroll and Shamiela Clark according to various newspaper reports received less than €75 of the €150 or more for each customer they serviced. Their hours and the number of customers seen would have been determined by Carroll and Clark who operated the telephones from their home in Wales with local staff in Dublin collecting the earnings.

The girls came from South America, Africa and Asia.

There services were advertised on websites that specialise in such services.

It was reported that one customer complained that the girl he met was miserable and unhappy. You would have thought that he would have been more compassionate of her situation and reported the matter to the Gardai.

Very often these girls spoke very little English and customers arranged their appointment with Carroll and Clark thinking that they were speaking with the escort.

The Irish Independent reports:

The wide web of prostitution network

Tom Brady – Irish Independent

THE money-spinning prostitution racket, masterminded by a Carlow man and his wife, netted profits of up to €70,000-a-week.

But the Criminal Assets Bureau and other agencies are now tracking investments made by Thomas ‘TJ’ Carroll and Shamiela Clark in six countries.

They have already identified two properties in Co Carlow, one each in Wales and Cyprus, two in Bulgaria, three in South Africa and one in Mozambique.

Gardai have so far seized €230,000 in cash as a result of their inquiries.

At the height of the racket, more than a dozen brothels were bringing in earnings of up to €10,000-a-day. However, it is understood that turnover had declined in the recession.

Gardai launched ‘Operation Abbey’ in 2007 after a study of the outcome of a previous investigation focused on Carroll and his activities, mainly in the south-east of the country.

After more than a year of detailed inquiries, spearheaded by Detective Superintendent Dominic Hayes, Operation Abbey culminated in a series of raids on nine brothels in Cavan, Drogheda, Athlone, Mullingar, Sligo, Kilkenny, Enniscorthy, Newbridge and Waterford in December 2008.

Premises were also searched in Bagenalstown and Carlow town while seven suspects were initially arrested here and held for questioning. Financial accounts in two banks and a credit union were analysed by CAB and fraud bureau officers seized laptops, mobile phones and electronic equipment recovered during the searches.

The gang operated through the internet and mobile phones while Carroll and his associates set up a “call centre” in Milford Haven in Wales.

They also carried out “market research” by placing advertisements in newspapers, magazines and websites to test the level of interest in a targeted area for escort services.

At the height of his business, Carroll was profiting from an estimated 22 brothels, with 18 on this side of the border, two in Northern Ireland and two in Wales.

Bloggers beware the libel laws are out there

It was reported last Sunday in The Sunday Times that a blogger known as Ardmayle has paid out damages to an Irish civil servant and his partner over an allegation posted on the bloggers blog.

This is a new departure for the blogging world and one which we must closely follow.

The Sunday Times report:

Blogger must pay €100,000 for libel

John Burns – The Sunday Times

A blogger has agreed a €100,000 settlement after libelling Niall Ó Donnchú, a senior civil servant, and his girlfriend Laura Barnes. It is the first time in Ireland that defamatory material on a blog has resulted in a pay-out.

Barnes, an American book dealer, made a profit of up to €800,000 in 2005 from selling a cache of James Joyce papers to the state. One year later she began a relationship with Ó Donnchú, an assistant secretary in the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism.

In December 1, 2006, a blogger who styles himself as Ardmayle posted a comment about the couple and the sale of the Joycean manuscripts under the headline “Barnes and Noble”. Following a legal complaint, he took down the blog and in February 2007 he posted an apology which had been supplied by Ó Donnchú’s and Barnes’ lawyer, Ivor Fitzpatrick solicitors.

“I subsequently discovered that these remarks were inaccurate,” Ardmayle said. “I unreservedly apologise to both Laura Barnes and Niall Ó Donnchú in respect of this post.”

However, the pair subsequently issued separate proceedings. It is understood that the €100,000 settlement was agreed shortly before the case was due before the High Court. A full defamation trial before a jury can cost €700,000-€800,000 in legal costs for both parties.

The blog, still active at http://ardmayle.blogspot.com/, is in the form of a personal diary with observations on the arts, literature and sport. The author is not identified, and the litigants may have got his details through his internet server provider (ISP).

The settlement was subject to a confidentiality agreement, which forbids the blogger from speaking about it publicly. Neither Ó Donnchú nor Barnes responded to invitations to comment.

Barnes had previously said that the libel suit was “not about money [but] about people being held to account”.

It is understood that the blogger has paid only a small proportion of the €100,000 damages, and was recently made redundant from his job. In addition to the settlement, he must pay his own legal costs.

The case is likely to have a chilling effect on the Irish blogosphere, which generally takes a casual attitude to defamation and people’s reputations. The Ardmayle action was settled before a new Defamation Act came into effect on January 1.

In 2008, members of the Committee of Public Accounts accused the National Library of Ireland of being “stung” in the Joycean papers deal. The library could have bought the papers from a Parisian bookseller for €400,000 in 2004. They eventually paid €1.17m to Barnes.

Ó Donnchú was cleared of wrongdoing by an internal inquiry in the Department of Arts in 2007. It concluded that the department’s interests were not compromised by his relationship with Barnes, and that the official had “dealt appropriately” with his responsibilities under ethics legislation.