BACKGROUND:The prostitution empire run by TJ Carroll spanned rural Ireland with the earnings invested worldwide, writes CONOR LALLY
THE EXTENT of TJ Carroll’s prostitution operation became apparent on December 3rd, 2008, when gardaí raided 18 brothels, mostly rented apartments, and other premises across the Republic.
Six sex workers were found in the brothels. All were foreign and two were minors, aged just 17 and 15 years. At the same time, Welsh police arrested Carroll and his wife Shamiela Clark in the tiny hamlet of Castlemartin in Pembrokeshire, south Wales.
Their “business model” demonstrated how the internet and mobile phones allowed them to run a business in 18 towns across rural Ireland without even being present in the Republic.
They employed pimps in Ireland to run the brothels.
The women’s services were advertised on the internet. When men rang the Irish numbers on the sites, the phones were answered in Wales by Carroll and his wife, who directed punters to the Irish brothels.
The money was collected here by Carroll’s daughter, Toma, and was transferred into his accounts.
Carroll bought properties in Ireland, Wales, Bulgaria, South Africa and Mozambique. He also had very significant cash deposits. He is now the subject of a major international assets confiscation investigation which involves the Criminal Assets Bureau.
Carroll and Clark met in 2006 through mutual friends in the prostitution world in Ireland. They had been arrested twice in the Republic – in Enniscorthy in 2005 and Galway in 2006 – by gardaí investigating brothel keeping. Their sentencing hearing in Cardiff yesterday was told that when he was arrested in Ireland in 2006, Carroll admitted brothel keeping. He told gardaí: “Ireland is very beneficial at the moment. It’s a sex-starved country and always has been.”
Of prostitution he said: “It saves rapes and child molestations. It gives people somewhere to go.”
When released from Garda custody the couple decided to flee to Wales, from where they operated until they were arrested there 14 months ago. At that time they were running brothels in Cavan, Drogheda, Athlone, Mullingar, Sligo, Kilkenny, Enniscorthy, Newbridge and Waterford.
Their sentencing hearing was told women would be sent from their home country to the UK or Europe by international gangs, often with promises of education or jobs.
Some went through witchcraft rituals which involved killing animals and one teenage girl was placed in a coffin so she “experienced the fear of death”.
The women were disorientated by the constant moving, had their passports confiscated, were friendless and having little or no English were trapped here. They were also coerced by fear. But the UK’s SOCA ( Serious Organised Crime Agency), Dyfed Powys police and gardaí were carrying out undercover surveillance.
A SOCA officer overheard a phone conversation on a train where Clark gave punters in Ireland directions to sex workers in brothels.
The officer was in the same train carriage as Clark and Carroll when Carroll said: “For them [the prostitutes] it’s all about time. For us, it’s all about the money.”
Clark then said: “Some of them can do it in five minutes. They do it for kicks.”
Ruhama, the Dublin-based group that helps women involved in prostitution, welcomed yesterday’s sentencings. However, it said a public awareness campaign was needed so men who used the sex trade realised they were involved in crime and abuse.
Spokeswoman Geraldine Rowley said: “The exploitation against these vulnerable victims was severe; they were lured to Ireland with the promise of a better life but found themselves entrapped through debt bondage, ritual oaths and violence. Regrettably the full story of what has been inflicted on these women and many others did not emerge in the court.”