The CSO found that 20% of incidents reported by phone to stations in the Dublin region in 2011 were not transferred to the Pulse system

A Garda who denied raping a young Eastern European sex worker after her apartment was raided because it was being used as a 'brothel', was fined for a breach of discipline, it has been learned.

The garda concerned is understood to have been fined following an internal garda inquiry into a 'breach of discipline' after he admitted having had 'consensual' sex with the young woman.

The two women were prosecuted and fined after admitting prostitution offences.

The Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) yesterday issued details of the case - the first case in which GSOC investigators arrested a member of An Garda Siochana over a serious charge.

The officer was arrested following a complaint by the young woman. She alleged that after she and another sex worker were arrested and questioned by gardai, she returned to the apartment where she had been working.

She alleged the garda later returned alone to the apartment and raped her.

The garda denied this and said they had 'consensual' sex and that he was off-duty at the time he called back to the apartment.

The second woman, who had been working along with the alleged victim, gave evidence that she had witnessed the rape.

The ombudsman published details of the case on its website on Friday.

GSOC stated that a file had been prepared by its investigators and submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions who declined to bring any criminal charge.

In its account of the case, the ombudsman states: "The investigation, carried out by a GSOC senior investigating officer, involved taking statements from the two women and from the garda concerned.

"The first complainant's statement said that she felt compelled to have sexual intercourse with the garda concerned because he was a member of An Garda Siochána involved in a prosecution which led to her conviction for an offence under s.11 of the Criminal Law Sexual Offences Act 1993 and she feared further prosecution. Evidence showed that the garda had been involved in the prosecution of the two women."

"The garda's statement said that the sexual intercourse had occurred subsequent to the arrest, but that it was consensual. The records of duty relevant to the garda were contradictory as regards his actual hours of duty, so it was unclear whether he was on- or off-duty at the time of the act.

"A report summarising the above findings of the investigation and making a recommendation was issued to Garda Authorities. A breach of discipline was found by Garda Authorities and a sanction applied."

The rape allegation followed a garda raid on the women's rented apartment in the Midlands. Under current prostitution law, more than one person selling sex from a premises constitutes a 'brothel'.

Lucy Smith, who runs the Uglymugs.ie agency which supports sex workers, said yesterday that she could not understand how a garda returning to an apartment, which had been raided earlier, to have sex with one of the arrested women, could be 'consensual'.

"I find it unbelievable that after the raid, the garda officer comes back and claims to have had consensual sex. That is entirely problematic.

"I don't believe it was the sex worker's choice to have sex with one of the officers that had arrested her," she said.

Sunday Independent