Abstracts: 2001

February 4, 2001 
Ireland's lap dancers: the full shocking truth
"Private Dancer", RTE documentary about lap dancers.  Previewed by the Sunday People.
According to this article:
The program "Private Dancer" aired on Feb. 12, 2001 as part of RTE's "True Lives" series. It focused on the lives of six women; one Dubliner, (Samantha, an Angels dancer) and others from Britain. Samantha said she earned a minimum of pounds 200 nightly and that she was saving her money to pay for breast implants.  Bertie Corcoran,  Angels general manager said: "Lap dancing is not demeaning to women. 

The documentary included: "Close-ups of numerous topless dancers gyrating inches from the faces of sweating customers in the back room of a Dublin club. Girls fondling and licking their breasts to turn the punters on  Dancers on a stage wearing only g-strings simulating sex acts in front of a room full of men  Slow motion shots of girls unhooking their bras and caressing their nipples for their customers." 

RTE expected protest calls but chose to air the program because it believes that lap dancing is now part of Irish culture. The outraged comments of Noel Houlihan (Family Solidarity) are quoted.

Gallagher, Jim.  "Ireland's lap dancers: the full shocking truth " Irish Sunday People  4 Feb, 2001.

February 9, 2001
EU tackles sex trade
According to this article:
European Union justice and home affairs ministers ended a two-day meeting in Stockholm with a discussion of ways to combat sex trafficking.. Ministers concentrated on the smuggling of women and children into Europe to be used in prostitution and pornography. The ministers agreed to speed up work aimed at finding common approaches to deal with the problem.

The European Commission estimates that approx. 500,000 women are forced into sexual slavery in the EU annually. It issued framework proposals for EU legislation.  Antonio Vitorino, the EU Legal Affairs Commissioner, appealed to the EU members and all candidate countries to ratify the UN Convention on International Organised Crime which cannot come into force until ratified by 40 countries. There was agreement that EU members must move towards harmonising laws and penalties to deal with human trafficking to insure that criminals do not have the option of moving to more lenient countries. Ministers suggested that victims who co-operate with the police and give evidence in court should be given all the protection they need to avoid suffering reprisals.

Roxburgh, Angus. "EU tackles sex trade" BBC  9 Feb. 2001. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/europe/1162461.stm>

March 8, 2001
Child asylum seekers sold for sex
BBC
According to this article:
A BBC documentary has revealed that African teenagers seeking asylum in the UK are being taken by organised gangs and sold as prostitutes in Italy. More than 40 girls, some as young as 14, have disappeared from children's homes in Sussex in the last two years.

March 8, 2001
EU 'to protect' sex slaves
BBC
According to this article:
The European Commission - the executive arm of the European Union - is to propose measures to give special protection to women prostitutes if they co-operate with the authorities to fight cross-border trafficking of women. Launching a campaign against human trafficking to coincide with International Women's Day, Justice Commissioner Antonio Vitorino said the women would be given temporary residency rights. 

March 15, 2001
Foreign women kept as sex slaves in Ireland 
Irish Examiner 
Karl Brophy, Political Correspondent
According to this article:
The Joint Committee on Justice, Equality and Women’s Rights was told yesterday that women being imported to work in Ireland’s underground sex industry are being exploited by mafia bosses across Europe. Many are promised good jobs here by criminals but have their passports and papers confiscated by the traffickers when they arrive and are forced into prostitution. The End Child Prostitution and Trafficking (ECPAT) campaign said that the European wide trade of bringing sex slaves from countries like Nigeria and the Philippines has now spread to Ireland. Ms O’Briain also warned that Irish children are being increasingly exposed to the threat of paedophiles over the Internet.

April 14, 2001
Refuge from the sex slave traders 
Irish Times
According to this article:
Irish Times reporter Lara Marlowe describes a refuge, "Casa Regina Pacisfor" for east European victims of sex trafficking.  It was  founded by an Italian priest, Don Cesare Lodeserto and includes a walled annex for eastern European victims.  He also runs safe houses in northern Italy, Moldova and the Ukraine.  Funding is through private donors, the Italian government, the Vatican and the Italian Bishops' Conference. 

Don Cesare estimates that he has saved 650 Moldovan and Ukrainian women from the Albanian mafia last year. He finds employment for them and never turns anyone away. The average stay is about a year. He pays for the women to visit their families once a year, if they choose to.  32 babies have been born to the women, many conceived during rapes or forced prostitution. He is protected by police bodyguards and was kidnapped by Albanians in 2001, but was freed after the police intervened. 

Details are provided regarding the experiences of the women at the hands of traffickers.  They include rape, auctions "where women are sold like cattle", and threats to their families if they attempt to escape or betray their captors.  

"Anna", from Moldova, was sold to an Albanian pimp and was taken to Italy in a "scafi" (a speedboat commonly used by traffickers.) Police were waiting at the beach.  The trafficker was arrested, Anna was sent to the Casa Regina Pacis and eventually testified against him. The maximum sentence is 7 years.  She fears the day he is released.

18 year old Irina was a pregnant run-away from Chisinau. She was sold eight times in three months in Albania. After escaping from captivity, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy who lives with her at he Casa Regina Pacis.

A police inspector interviewed for the article described the barbarity of the Albanian traffickers; women with cigarette burns covering their bodies, cars being driven over the women, and severed arms or legs shown to the women. She said that in Italy, Albanians have almost exclusive control over the prostitution of east European girls.

Don Cesare noted that many Albanian women are becoming the "bosses" rather than the victims, and are engaging in the trafficking of other women.

An estimated 120,000 east European women are trafficked into western Europe.  The EU has not taken a "concerted humanitarian approach" to the problem. France and Britain regard the young women as illegal immigrants and criminals rather than victims. In Paris a memorandum was provided to the Council of Europe noted that member-states "have a hard time distinguishing between prostitution and trafficking" and that "certain members noted that most of the women who engage in prostitution do it for financial reasons".

Quotes:
"We must throw off the image of the consenting, mercenary girl. Any form of slavery is vile. Most of them leave home without knowing. Some know - but knowing doesn't mean wanting. There is such a thing as deliberate prostitution, but not for the girls from the East." Don Cesare

"The Gospel says the prostitute will precede you to heaven, so I cast my lot with them, because I want to arrive just behind them."  Don Cesare

"When I arrived, there were a dozen girls in that apartment, most of them Moldovan, a few Ukrainian. We were locked up; they took my passport," she says. "The other girls said: `What did you think was going to happen? It's just a job - you'll sell yourself when you get to Italy and you'll make money.' I had trusted the woman in Chisinau. Nobody there said anything about prostitution; they talked about working in a bar or a restaurant." "Anna"

March 8, 2001
Sex slaves lured to Ireland by ads
Irish Examiner 
Mary Dundon
According to this article:
Professor Kevin Bales, Professor of Sociology at the University of Surrey and worldwide slave expert said that over 100 women sold into prostitution by international illegal traffickers have ended up in Ireland and are finding it near impossible to escape. He said these women are part of 100,000 Eastern European, Middle Eastern and West African people who have been trafficked illegally into Western Europe by criminals. They start off as economic migrants hoping to secure a better life in Europe, but they do not understand that this is not possible without proper visas and work permits.

The Ruhama Women’s Project Director, Maura Connolly, would not quantify the number of prostitutes sold into slavery they had come across in Dublin, but said she believed it was just the tip of the iceberg. “A lot of them don’t speak English and this makes it more difficult to seek help, but some of those we have helped have managed to escape.”

June 2001 
UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons 
National Women's Council of Ireland 
Womanzone Issue 7
Message from Chairwoman Gráinne Healy 
"The new UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (2000) is a wide-ranging international agreement to address the crime of trafficking, in particular, of women and children, on a transnational level. It creates a global language and legislation to define trafficking, to assist victims of trafficking and to prevent trafficking. 

Trafficking is a 5-7 billion U.S. dollar operation annually, with 4 million persons moved from one country to another and within countries*. Millions of women are trafficked into the sex industry. It is estimated that 8,000 Nigerian women have been trafficked into prostitution on the streets of Italy. 

There are no available/reliable figures for Ireland, but strong anecdotal evidence from those working with women involved in prostitution in Ireland suggests that the numbers of Eastern European women now involved in prostitution in Ireland indicates that these women are being brought here specifically to engage in prostitution.

 This is trafficking. We need to tackle the crime of trafficking and we need to link as inextricable – trafficking and prostitution. Under the new Protocol, the trafficked women and children in prostitution and child labour are no longer viewed as criminals, but are seen as victims of a crime. 

The consent of a victim of trafficking is irrelevant, which is very important, given that many women ‘consent’ to travel for work as domestic servants or factory workers to escape poverty, only to discover that they are actually being sold into prostitution.

The Protocol is the first UN instrument to address women and children being trafficked, calling upon countries such as Ireland, to take or strengthen legislative or other measures to discourage all forms of exploitation of women and children. Prostitution is a violation of all women’s human rights, an act of violence against women and as such can never be seen as an acceptable form of ‘work’ for women. 

Arguments about ‘forced’ or ‘unforced’ prostitution merely dignify the sex industry – so that buyers of commercial sex are legitimised as ‘customers’ and pimps become ‘business agents or brokers’.

The NWCI is committed to monitor the interpretation of the UN Protocol. Its interpretation must ensure that trafficking is linked to the sexual exploitation of women and children – such exploitation always implies overt or covert use of violence, whether that force is physical, emotional, psychological or economic.

The NWCI believes that trafficking and sexual exploitation are intrinsically linked and should not be separated merely because there are other forms of trafficking or because some countries have legalised or regulated prostitution and thus want to censor any discussion of prostitution. 

There are some very basic questions to be asked in this discussion about trafficking and prostitution. Is prostitution a career to which you want your daughter to aspire? If not our daughters, does it make it ok that many of the young women working in prostitution in Dublin are drug addicts, ‘foreign’, illiterate or poor? 

Prostitution should not be a career option for any girl or woman, anywhere in the world.

The NWCI rejects the patronising and dangerous attitude amongst some ‘developed’ countries that prostitution is a valid form of employment and an acceptable solution to women’s poverty. All women have human rights – we must work hardest to protect the human rights of those with the weakest voices. 

Trafficking supports prostitution. The battle to end trafficking must include a comprehensive feminist approach, which combats the trend, to legalise or regulate prostitution as work and must also penalise the buyers. 

Sweden’s law against buying ‘sexual services’ is a model that should be emulated – where those – the vast majority of them heterosexual men, found to be buying sex are convicted. Finally, we must ensure that trafficked women are not seen as illegal migrants to be deported. Trafficking is exploited migration, but trafficked women are not migration criminals.

The Government must fund women’s groups who oppose trafficking and prostitution. The NWCI commends the work of its affiliates in this sector – the groups working to combat violence against women generally, those engaged in the promotion of women’s human rights and the specialist groups such as Ruhama, who work in such challenging circumstances to support women involved in prostitution.

Let’s use the UN Protocol – International treaties alone, are not sufficient to combat the crime of trafficking in women and children. But the anti-trafficking protocol is a huge step forward in advancing the human rights of women and children into the 21st century."

*see Guide to the New UN Trafficking Protocol. EWL, MAPP, CATW, Article Premier, AFEM. April, 2001. Copies available from EWL/NWCI.

June 2001

Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation: A Human Rights Issue
Womenzone Issue 7
Maura Connolly, Ruhama Women’s Project
According to this article:
"Modern slavery, and in particular the trade in women and children for sexual exploitation, is a growing phenomenon. This trade is no longer restricted to Asia, Africa and South America but is also happening in Europe and Ireland. The illegal nature of trafficking means that it is hard to quantify, but it is estimated that more than 300,000 women are trafficked from Eastern Europe for sexual exploitation each year. What is sexual exploitation and how is it relevant to Ireland? The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women defines sexual exploitation as: The practice by which person(s) achieve sexual gratification or financial gain or advancement through the abuse of a person’s sexuality. It includes sexual harassment, rape, incest, battering, pornography and prostitution.

The Celtic Tiger has created a climate favourable to the expansion of the sex industry in Ireland, resulting in an increase in the rate of prostitution and the possibility of women being trafficked into the country for sexual exploitation. The penalties for trafficking in women are currently less than for trafficking drugs or arms. Trafficking in women for sexual exploitation in Ireland is highly organised. The women are brought or smuggled into the country through a variety of routes to work primarily in lap dancing clubs or brothels. Some women spend only a little time in Ireland before being moved on to another country. The following synopsis is one woman’s story

.Eva is from Eastern Europe. After the fall of communism, the day-to-day struggle for her family became very difficult. Eva heard that there were opportunities for young women to work in Ireland as nannies. Her plan was to send money back home to the family. A recruitment agency provided her with the necessary papers and arranged for a male companion to look after her on the journey and to help her when she arrived in Ireland. Her minder told her that it was important that she didn’t come to the attention of the authorities and that he would ensure that she would have no difficulties with her papers, obtaining work or finding accommodation. She was taken to an apartment directly from the airport and her nightmare began. Her papers were taken from her. Her minder raped her and then made her have sex with his friends. Every day men would come to the apartment and Eva was forced to have sex with them. She was not allowed out of the apartment and received no money. Her minder provided her food and clothes. One night, some months later, when her minder was asleep she managed to get his keys and leave. Bewildered and frightened with only a few words of English, she wandered the streets of Dublin until the Ruhama outreach team spotted her. Going to the police was not an option for her as, in her country, the police are corrupt.

Eva was lucky; the Ruhama project was able to provide her with safe accommodation and over a period of time helped her start a new life in Ireland. The project knows that there are many Evas in Ireland. Ruhama believes that this trafficking in women for sexual exploitation is a violation of human rights. The first article of 1948 International Declaration of Human Rights states that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. The fourth article states that no one shall be held in slavery or servitude, slavery and slave trade shall be prohibited. Eva was held in slavery and had her rights and freedom taken away from her. The 1949 UN Convention for the suppression of the traffic in persons and of the exploitation of the prostitution of others states that prostitution and the accompanying evil of the traffic in persons for the purpose of prostitution are incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person. Eva and women like her have been trafficked for prostitution. How can these women be protected and what can be done to stop this phenomenon from growing? Firstly, there must be an acknowledgement that trafficking of women for sexual exploitation is happening in Ireland. Secondly, the growth of the sex industry in Ireland needs to be challenged. The men that abuse these women come from all strata of society. Society needs to question why it is acceptable for men to use and abuse women in this way."

Ruhama is a Dublin-based project that works with and for women involved in prostitution

June 27, 2001
Lap dancing club out of step with the law, says judge 
Irish Independent
Kathy Donaghy and Tim Healy
According to this article:
Lapello's, one of Dublin's new lap dancing clubs, was seeking a full dance licence to be able to continue to provide a seven night a week service in a basement in Dublin's Dame Street. Its owners were told in the District Court that the club was not entitled to a licence under the 1935 Public Dance Halls Act because it does not allow "dancing in terms understood by the courts," Judge Clare Leonard said. 

June 27, 2001
Ruling could be curtains for Dublin lap-dancing
According to this article:
Judge Clare Leonard refused to grant public dancing licence to Club Lapello on grounds that it did not allow "dancing in terms understood by the courts". Gardaí objections were based on fact that patrons were not allowed to dance as at a normal venue. Judge Leonard said  "The type of dancing is exhibition dancing more in the category of entertainment than public dancing." She said that Lapellos did not appear to fall within the terms of the 1935 Public Dance Halls Act.
Club owner, Chris Kelly said patrons could dance after the lapdancers had finished, and there was a DJ present nightly.  He intends to appeal decision.

Lapellos operated without a dance licence for some time after it opened in May 2000. A temporary licence was granted. The club caters for corporate groups and stag and hen parties. Its website offers a  £500 "lesbian striptease", go-go dancers at £130 per dancer, private dances at between £10 and £20 per three to four-minute act, and a ""a raunchy double striptease limo service".

• Humphreys, Joe. "Ruling could be curtains for Dublin lap-dancing"  Irish Times  27 June 2001. <http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2001
  /0627/fro3.htm>

August 02, 2001
Murder of Adelle Hamilton
According to this article:
The body of Spearmint Rhino lap dancer Adelle Hamilton (18) was discovered in her apartment by her father on July 26, 2001. He found her lying face down with her hands tied behind her back.  She had been last seen leaving the Spearmint Rhino Lapdancing club in Slough at about 1:40 am on July 12 after the club called for a taxi for her. Adelle had been working at that club for six months and had been a lapdancer for about 12 months.

(Note: Age 18 at death and dancing for 12 months means she was dancing under the legal age.)

Around 2:45 am a neighbour heard a scream from Adelle's flat.  When her body was discovered, she was wearing the same clothing as when last seen.

Cause of death has not been fully established, but pathologists indicate it was consistent with asphyxiation.  There was no indication of sexual assault and robbery is considered the prime motive for her murder. Jewelry, cash, a DVD player and other items were missing.

Police were searching for the taxi driver last seen with Adele, as well as anyone with information.  One person was arrested and released on bail in connection with the murder.
 

• "Murder of Adelle Hamilton" Blacknet News & Information. August 2, 2001. <http://www.blacknet.co.uk/Whats_New_v2.0/
  Whats_New_v2.0.cgi?v=archive&c=Stop_Press
  &id=080210191855
   

August 17, 2001
Woman charged with lap dancer's murder
According to this article:
A teenage housewife has been charged with the murder of a lap dancer. Crystal Whilbey, 19, a Forest Hill housewife has been charged with the July 26th murder of Adelle Hamilton and with conspiracy with unknown others  to rob Ms. Hamilton.

• "Woman charged with lap dancer's murder" Blacknet News & Information. Aug. 17, 2001

December 13, 2001
Oh me, oh my ... city lap dancing club gets licence   
The decision of Judge Katherine Delahunt, Dublin Circuit Civil Court to grant a public dancing licence to Club Lapello.
According to this article:
Judge Katherine Delahunt granted a public dancing licence to Club Lapello. She said there had been no suggestion of illegalities taking place. Gardai visited the club 15 times and had objected to Starshine View Ltd. obtaining a licence due to basement premises being unsuitable and the lack of a dance floor.  A wooden dance floor had since been installed. 

Managh, Ray.  "Oh me, oh my ... city lap dancing club gets licence" Irish Independent 13 Dec. 2001.

December 13, 2001
No suggestion of anything illegal in lap-dance club 
The decision of Judge Katherine Delahunt, Dublin Circuit Civil Court to grant a public dancing licence to Club Lapello.
According to this article:
A court case on Dec. 12, 2001 resulted in the granting of a public dancing licence to Club Lapello. Gardaí objected to its licensing based on premise that the basement premises were unsuitable for public dancing and no dance floor existed. 

Mr. Aidan Walsh SC represented Lapellos at the hearing.  He said that a wooden dance floor had been provided and previous issues regarding security and access had been resolved. Ms Sabina Purcell, for the State Solicitor, argued that people did not dance with people, but that the dances were done "at people". 

"Judge Delahunt said that in building the dance floor and in fully co-operating with the Garda Síochána both on security and supervision the club had turned its premises around into what, under the Public Dancing Acts, was a suitable premises." Club Lapello is owned by Mr. Christopher Kelly (Starshine View Ltd.)

"No suggestion of anything illegal in lap-dance club" The Irish Times. 13 Dec., 2001. <http://www.ireland.com/>

December 16, 2001
All you ever wanted to know about lap-dancing
Opinion regarding decision of Judge Katherine Delahunt, Dublin Circuit Civil Court to grant the Club Lapello license.
According to this article:
The legal definition of "public dancing" is "is the movement of a person with or without music, in a dance in which they were entitled to participate actively".  Gardaí visited Lapellos on 15 different occasions and stated in court that Lapellos was "an upmarket club with a respectable clientele which operated satisfactorily".   The "sea-change" in Irish life is illustrated.

McCormack, Declan "All you ever wanted to know about lap-dancing" Irish Independent 16 Dec, 2001.