Senator Sharon Keogan has said that the continued existence of the Escort Ireland website \u201cis nothing short of a mockery of our laws.\u201d<\/p>\n
It comes after the Stormont Assembly heard today that more than 500 women are advertised for sex daily on pimping websites in the North, amid warnings of sex trafficking.<\/p>\n
Campaigners have warned that the advertising of women as \u201cindependent escorts\u201d is \u201corganised, coerced and controlled.\u201d<\/p>\n
The site is Ireland\u2019s largest advertising site for prostitution services, with 6-900 listings online at any one time. Users are encouraged to leave \u201cratings\u201d on the women. Who are listed with photographs, prices, and services offered.<\/p>\n
Many of the women on the site are foreign born, with the website making its money by charging the \u201csex workers\u201d who use it for their advertisements, which means it makes money directly from prostitution.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The site is based in the UK (as it is illegal to advertise sex in Ireland) and is owned by a company operating in Spain, which is owned by convicted pimp Peter McCormick, whose son Mark is also a convicted brothel keeper. The holding company behind the site turned over \u20ac6 million in 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cI refer to the website commonly known as Escort Ireland. The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 criminalises the purchase of sex in this jurisdiction,\u201d said Senator Keogan speaking in the Seanad on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cYet, this platform exists for one clear purpose; to advertise sexual services to be bought here in direct defiance of that law. It is not a marginal operation. It is a large, highly profitable enterprise, reportedly charging weekly fees for advertisements while hosting hundreds of listings aimed squarely at Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cPublic reporting has identified individuals linked to this operation who have past criminal convictions for pimping. Company records show the business was relocated from London to Spain, where it now trades through a Spanish registered company reporting multimillion euro revenues. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is organised, transnational activity, not casual online behaviour. These concerns are now underlined by serious, independent research,\u201d the Meath Senator added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy, SERP, Institute, which has called on our Minister for justice to take action, reports stark findings. Hundreds of women are advertised daily across the island of Ireland on these platforms, with over 900 on a single site.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe majority are young migrant women, many of whom have limited English. In a four-week analysis of online profiles, the SERP Institute identified 19 of 28 internationally recognised indicators of trafficking and sexualised exploitation. <\/p>\n
\u201cWomen presented as independent escorts are, in reality, often controlled by organised crime groups that dominate the sex trade. These websites provide anonymity for buyers, pimps and traffickers while generating millions in profit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the law cannot reach those who openly organise, advertise or profit from the breach of our laws then we must ask ourselves who exactly is the law for. I call for a debate to allow the House to discuss these issues, particularly as the continued existence of the website in question is nothing short of a mockery of our laws,\u201d said the senator.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are four main websites advertising women for sexual services across Northern Ireland \u2013 Locanto, Adult Works, Viva Street and Escort Ireland, with Escort Ireland being the largest.<\/p>\n
It has been in business for more than 30 years. According to BBC NI, there are 500 women advertising sexual services daily on the platform.<\/p>\n
Ruth Breslin, director of the Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy (SERP) Institute, commented: \u201cThe majority of women we see on these sites are women who are being organised, coerced and controlled and someone else is making money and profiting from them being sold for sex\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cIf you look at their profile they are often very young. They are advertised as \u2018new to Ireland\u2019 or \u2018only in Belfast for a week\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senator Sharon Keogan has said that the continued existence of the Escort Ireland website \u201cis nothing short of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[180422,118420,61,60,43,180423,180424,180425],"class_list":{"0":"post-410710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-escort-ireland","9":"tag-exploitation","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pimps","14":"tag-senator-sharon-keogan","15":"tag-sexual-exploitation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}