A man found guilty of being party to the use of a premises as a brothel has received a €500 fine and a suspended sentence.
Raul Alvarado (40), John Street, the Brewery, Limerick, was dressed in lingerie when he answered the door to gardaí investigating a reported brothel in Cork city on August 12th, 2011.
Gardaí found windows blacked out and rooms lit with red bulbs when they investigated the premises at Great William O’Brien Street, Cork.
Alvarado, from Venezuela, who told gardaí he was trying to save money to have a sex-change operation, denied being party to the use of a premises as a brothel.
His solicitor Denis Healy argued that the word brothel was not defined in Irish law, but Judge Con O’Leary said: “Where a person supplies sexual services for money or other material consideration, that is the plain meaning in the English language.”