Pimps 'hiding in plain sight'

A charity offering support to women impacted by prostitution, sex trafficking and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation, is hoping to extend its services to Cavan, Monaghan and neighbouring counties as early as next year.

It follows the jailing of a man last week who operated a network of brothels in rural towns across Ireland, including one in Ballyconnell.

While the conviction is welcomed, Barbara Condon, CEO of Ruhama, believes that, for every Ilamar Rodrigues Ribeiro put behind bars, there are several others “waiting and willing” to take their place.

“There are always others in the shadows, waiting and willing. There are huge profits to be made from selling a human being over and over and over again. After drug trafficking, human-trafficking is the second largest form of organised crime.”

Brazilian national Ribeiro (54) had been under investigation after a number of rental properties being used as brothels around the country were traced back to him.

The garda probe also led the discovery of nearly €800,000, considered to be the proceeds of crime, stashed and routed across multiple Irish bank accounts.

Ribeiro was arrested by gardaí from the Garda Human Trafficking and Co-ordination Unit after touching down in Ireland at Dublin Airport in November 2023 having spent a period of time abroad.

He pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 19 sample counts, including using false instruments, inducing landlords to rent properties to him, and possession of the proceeds of crime.

The offending spanned from 2010 to 2023, and Ribero also pleaded to possession of child sexual abuse material found on his phone when gardaí picked him up.

Ruhama is headquartered in Dublin but has a regional base in the Midlands (Tullamore) and another in Limerick. They also recently set up a hub for Cork-Kerry.

Ms Condon speaks openly about how women exploited and coerced into sex trafficking are often times hidden in rural Ireland where it appears easier for this kind of criminal activity to go undetected.

Ruhama has in the past worked with vulnerable women fleeing the sex trade from Cavan, and the charity is now looking at ways of setting up a more established point of contact, potentially starting in 2026.

“We're planning to [open a hub for] the North West, and then the North East as well. So supports are being put in. It's very important to have accessibility because, for too long, these services were just in Dublin. Particularly with trafficking because rural locations are favoured by these criminals because it's hidden in plain sight,” she says.

“We would have dealt with women up in Cavan, have travelled to Cavan, and women from Cavan would have travelled to Dublin. So, while we don't have a base right now in Cavan, the services are still being provided.”

Some women are “groomed”. Others are coerced into the industry by men using the “loverboy method”, sometimes being brought over to Ireland on the promise of a relationship or legitimate employment.

“When they get here their documents are taken from them, they have nothing, no money, they don't know the language, there can be violence involved, and all of a sudden they're forced into prostitution to pay their way out.”

But challenges for a charity like Ruhama working with women in the likes of Cavan are unique due to the county's proximity to the Border.

Before the law was changed in 2017 to decriminalise the sale of sex, and instead criminalise the purchase of sex and the brothel keeper, several women were arrested and brought before the courts after one such operation was raided at an apartment block in Cavan Town. However, while the three women were bailed, they all failed to reappear in court, with bench warrants issued. The warrants were cancelled years later with a judge informed that gardaí suspected the person had subsequently fled the jurisdiction.

“Traffickers don't see borders, they see it as the island of Ireland and they absolutely traffic victims North and South. Criminals don't respect jurisdiction, and it presents a particularly unique challenge for the gardaí, who I know work very closely with the PSNI in monitoring. They share intelligence all the time and we would work with Women's Aid in Northern Ireland as well to engage with victims of human trafficking and modern slavery.”

Ms Condon, who has decades of experience in healthcare provision, and took over her role at Ruhama close to five years ago, says that the passing of legislation last year aimed at strengthening protections for victims of sexual offences and human trafficking was “important”.

The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill 2023 implements key recommendations made by the O’Malley Review of protections for vulnerable witnesses in sexual-offences cases.

The bill also includes measures to identify and support victims of human trafficking, and puts a new National Referral Mechanism (NRM) for human-trafficking victims on a statutory footing.

Working with the gardaí

For the likes of Ruhama they now have a more involved role, working in tandem with An Garda Síochána, to identify victims. Currently the operational guidelines are being drawn up for that and are expected to be introduced before the end of the year.

“Hopefully that'll see more victims getting identified, but also more victims getting the support they need.”

The difficulty at present is that many victims of sex trafficking or slavery simply won't report to gardaí, perhaps out of fear. “The strengthened NRM is designed to address that,” states Ms Condon, who laments that it takes a conviction of someone such as Ribeiro to shine a light on how widespread brothel keeping is, and how unsuspecting landlords and properties are being used in towns and villages nationwide.

“What's important is that it was a lengthy sentence, and it reflects the seriousness of the crime. It does also shine a light, because people still think this sort of activity only happens in Dublin, or the big towns. They're not aware, and it's really important to raise that awareness. This was a really complex case and a lot of work went into securing a conviction. So it's very welcome, and we know there are other cases in the pipeline.”

Ms Condon says too that human-trafficking is happening in “every town and village across the country".

She added: "We see women in every county. It happens in plain sight. But it's about reducing demand as well. The most important thing is to now try and strengthen the powers of gardaí, to be able to arrest and prosecute sex buyers, pimps and traffickers. That's really critical.”