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GARDAÍ BELIEVE FOUR young, vulnerable Romanian women who were arrested in Galway over the weekend were trafficked into Ireland by a criminal gang to work in brothels across the country.
The four women, aged 21, 22, 23 and 30, who appeared before a special court sitting in Galway yesterday, are believed to have been brought into the country by either Dublin or Belfast-based pimps to provide sexual services for a large number of men through the Escort Ireland website.
The four young women deny this and claim they were acting alone to raise money for their impoverished families in Romania.
They were arrested at An Larnach, Bohermore, Galway, at 11pm on Saturday night, 29 October, and pleaded guilty straight away to operating a brothel at that address.
The arrests were made an hour after gardaí quizzed a man leaving the apartment who said he had just paid €70 for sexual favours.
Detective Sergeant Willie Byrne told the special sitting of Galway District Court that gardaí were carrying out surveillance of the apartment over the last number of weeks and they executed a search warrant on speaking to the man after he left the apartment at 10pm on Saturday night.
The four women were taken to Galway Garda Station where they accepted full responsibility for operating a brothel.
They were brought before a special sitting of Galway District Court today where they huddled together as an interpreter explained what was being said for them.
Byrne gave evidence that gardaí did not know how long the young women were in Ireland but they had been in Mayo last week and, after spending a week in Galway, it was their intention to go to Wexford next week.
The young women told gardaí they had only arrived in Ireland last week and were acting alone, but Detective Byrne said he did not accept this.
In any event, they are four little girls and they made full admissions that they were providing sexual services to a large number of men through the website, Escort Ireland.
“They were paying €700 rent to a greedy landlord for an apartment that they should have been paying €350 for. So, they were being used and abused by a lot of people,” Byrne added.
In reply to Judge Gerard Furlong, Byrne said he didn’t believe the women when they told him they worked alone.
“I believe they are under the control of Dublin or Belfast-based pimps. They were in Mayo last week, Galway this week and Wexford next week. That would have to be organised by others. They wouldn’t have the ‘wherewithal’ to organise that themselves,” he continued in evidence.
Gardaí confiscated €5,000 cash from the women, he added.
Judge Furlong said he accepted the women had not set up the brothel themselves and another party – who was not before the court at this time - was involved.
He asked if the women had been put in touch with organisations which would help women in their situation.
Byrne said he had mentioned the help certain organisations could afford them, but the women had assured him they were not trafficked into the country and they weren’t under any pressure.
They said they would prefer to be repatriated back to Romania and he said he hoped what they had told him was genuine.
Judge Furlong said the women should be made aware of organisations that were there to assist them.
Defence solicitor Brian Gilmartin said all of the women came from a very poor area in Romania and they told him they had come to Ireland to make some money to help their parents, some of whom were seriously ill.
“They are somewhat vulnerable and they didn’t believe their actions would bring them before the courts. They have spent two nights in garda custody and it’s been a frightening experience for them,” he added.
Ruling the women were being used by others not before the court, Judge Furlong convicted and fined each of them €200, payable forthwith and asked the gardaí to put them in contact with the relevant organisations who would help them.
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If a fully grown and matured adult man or woman wishes to go through the process of transitioning, I say let them at it.
But it is immoral and quite frankly child abuse to give pre-pubescent CHILDREN puberty blockers or to let them decide their own gender.
I don’t know if anyone remembers that disgraceful TV programme, “I am Jazz”, basically a 2 year old boy asked his mother when would the fairy come to make him into a girl. By the age of 5 this CHILD, was diagnosed with gender disphoria. Trans activists are always silent when this is brought up.
Apart from that, I think it’s socially responsible to teach 16 yr olds the basics of human sexuality (for their own protection) and for the younger kids, I think the example that peppa pig have where one of the characters has two mummies is also a very appropriate way to teach younger minds about the many different types of families we have in our modern world.
But transitioning children is wrong and should be called out as such by everyone.
@Kris Bopp: children don’t “transition”. Puberty blockers in countries where they are allowed are totally reversable. What is worse, what is actual child abuse is forcing a child to live a life as someone they are not. The suicide rate among trans kids is astronomical as a result. As for kids” choosing their own gender “….you do realise gender is a social construct and nothing to do with what’s between your kegs? You’re thinking of sex. Children are not allowed to change sex therefore your point is moot.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: the suicide rate is not astronomical. Please stop this false narrative; it’s unhelpful and comes across as manipulative.
@Sean Ryan: Suicidal Ideation in Trans kids and teens is VERY high.
“Data indicate that 82% of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide, with suicidality highest among transgender youth.”
Austin A, Craig SL, D’Souza S, McInroy LB. Suicidality Among Transgender Youth: Elucidating the Role of Interpersonal Risk Factors. J Interpers Violence. 2022 Mar;37(5-6):NP2696-NP2718. doi: 10.1177/0886260520915554. Epub 2020 Apr 29. Erratum in: J Interpers Violence. 2020 Jul 29;:886260520946128. PMID: 32345113.
@Sean Ryan: I’m working at the moment but I’ll be happy to provide stats this afternoon. You’re wrong.
@Tricia G: @Tricia G: Above all, every effort should be made to support anyone who needs it. Support for young people is essential; I say that as a former gender non-conforming youth (and a current gay man).
My criticism is that suicidal ideation is the not the same as suicide rate. Conflating them is irresponsible.
This research focuses on specific theories, namely minority stress theory and the interpersonal theory of suicide.
The overall jist is that there are myriad factors that impact suicidal ideation in young people; this may be higher for those with trans identities due to concomitant disorders as well as lack of support and being in a minority.
Points to be made clear (not problems, but need to be know)
This is secondary research. As with many studies, there will be some biases that are difficult to overcome. Here, recruitment came from social media, Tumblr and Reddit. All information is self-reported. Again, this is not uncommon and not a flaw, but it needs to be clear that suicidality was not assessed or diagnosed by mental health professionals.
Participant Characteristics are also worth looking at for anyone interested. A disproportionate number of transmen, which alone is worth research.
@Sean Ryan: facts are nothing when confronted with your edgelord catchphrases. Is there any word more used by the clueless to sound knowledgable than ‘narrative’?
@A$AP ETH: So no one can use the word “narrative”? OK. Then the statement about astronomical suicide rates is inaccurate.
@Sean Ryan: Ah, so when presented with actual scientific papers identifying that Trans youth have a very high rate of suicidal ideation and ATTEMPTED suicide you try and suggest that because they weren’t successful it’s not a problem.
Every single statistic has clearly demonstrated that trans youth have a high rate of suicide (if they’re not alive, they can’t report that they’re suicidal).
“In a study presented to the American Academy of Pediatrics, research showed a 60% decrease in moderate and severe depression who received gender-affirming care.
Additionally, there was 73% decrease in suicidality among transgender youth and non-binary youth. A fantastic feat for a community with an alarmingly high transgender suicide rate.” – Research Finds Significant Reduction in Depression, Suicidality in Youth Receiving Gender-Affirming Care or Puberty Blockers
Trans youth commit suicide and report suicidal thoughts at a rate far higher then Cis youth.
And the kicker – what lowers suicidal ideation is being ACCEPTED by their families and being accepted for who they are.
It is appalling to me that you’re so desperate to support your intolerance of trans youth that you would ignore the repeatedly reported facts.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: Puberty blockers are not totally reversible. Among other concerns, they are known to cause loss of bone density, leading to a higher risk of fractures and osteoporosis. The majority of children who are prescribed puberty blockers also go on to take cross sex hormones, which in adults can increase the risk of certain cancers, infertility, heart problems and even psychosis. The truth is there is simply not enough known about the long term effects of puberty blockers to allow anyone to state they are reversible and that’s why the Irish Council of General Practitioners and the NHS no longer describe them as such.
@Sean Ryan: Suicidal Ideation is all you have to go on. The prevalance of actual suicide in the community are undocumented. You can unfortunately assume that if the attempt rate is that high in this community that the actual rate must be elevated too. You yourself acknoweldged in your previous post that they are a minority community with a lack of support. Which gearoid implied was a factor in the high rate of SI , so you actually agreed with him but padded it out with waffle about how their must be other factors at play, in the face of data confirming this community is significantly more at risk of suicide. Would you attempt to explain away the suicidal ideation of another less marginalised community to downplay the issues that led to that persons suicide/suicide attempt? I doubt it.
What do you want to do, send in Samantha Power to threaten them a “color revolution”? The people of Hungary elected Mr Orban, whether liberal busybodies like it or not.
@west awake: Orban has fascist tendencies whether right wing busybodies like it being ponted out or not.
@west awake: People are who they are, and shouldn’t be discriminated against when it comes to healthcare. At all. You’re entitled as an EU member to travel and receive healthcare if you need any. Especially if you can’t get a necessary procedure or operation at home. There’s no good reason to exclude people just because they were born intersex or gay. Think of all the tourist revenue Hungary could benefit from if they weren’t putting visitors off with their mediaeval laws.
The Irish population is in big decline. We need to acknowledge this and be a family friendly country.
@Brian Boru: Brian you comment on every article, no job? Mates?
You know your over the target when you are taking flack. The enemy is upset.
@Brian Boru: No, Ireland is not “in decline” & we have an increasing population who support our constitution and cherish all children of the nation equally. If you’d like to pay more taxes to subsidise Boris Johnson’s growing family, flights to the UK leave hourly, off you go & donate to the families of politicians.
Let’s ban everything Fiona doesn’t like.
How very uninclusive , should be LGBTQQIP2SA+
Thank God for Viktor Orban , Thank God for a Leader who isn’t afraid to take a stand against LGBTQ+’s agenda of pushing sexual perversions on communities .
@FixoUZLA: what agenda Jim? What perversions exactly? What’s wrong with anyone being gay? Looking forward to your answer.
Kick em out of the EU! There urgently needs to be a new treaty drawn up anyway, making certain minimum requirements before a country can apply to join the EU. Obvious stuff like financial stability and regulations but human rights and equality has to be one part of it.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: good and while you are at it can I suggest that Ireland reforms it’s membership too and stops inflicting excessive high costs on citizens for car sales vrt , insurance premiums and instead allows us enjoy the benefits of the single market membership like it is suppose to / instead of insisting that we retain our own tax regimes that then force us to pay some of the highest prices for items like cars and insurances as an example / an example if car insurance was charged as cover Europe wide it would be much cheaper but there’s a whole range of expenses in Ireland where we don’t enjoy this single European principle in reality at all / instead we pontificate about other member states laws we don’t like / such hypocrisy
Yet another article about hungary being the absolute devil and Orban is the worst Ten years ago no one knew about this country,no one ever cared. Suddenly when the leftist agenda suits, everyone talks about it. I’m glad to know that there are countries where kids can be kids and not part of politics. Eat up all what america serves you up in this country, cause they are always so right in everything. Nothing but a follower yous are.
@G.G M: 10 years ago it wasn’t this bad. Use your head.
Oh I wouldn’t be too concerned about these children wanted blue hair and boys wearing skirts, I think it’s just kids been bold, they’ll be grand when they reach college age, as soon as they realize the other students are laughing at them they won’t be long in going back to normal behaviour, it’s just a faze they’re going through. I don’t why it gets so many column inches. Relax everybody.
Go Hungary!
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