A CASE WHICH saw a man who admitted to running four brothels walk free from court has been described as ‘highly disappointing’.

Thomas Lyons with an address at The Warren, Malahide, Dublin admitted to running and profiting from brothels in Limerick city between 2010-2011.

Women from Romania, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Niger and Hungary worked in various locations around the city.

Doras Luimní made the comments after Lyons was handed down a four years suspended sentence, with six years on probation.

Handing down the sentence Judge Tom O’Donnell commended the gardaí for their work.

Lyons, who previously worked as a senior consultant with a transport group in Dublin and as a traffic engineer, was the subject of a two year investigation involving many resources, surveillance and garda hours.

Doras Luimní have issued a statement criticising the sentence, sayin “Prostitution in Limerick is highly organised. It is extremely lucrative.

“We also think it important to highlight that prostitution in Limerick, as elsewhere, is highly racialised and gendered – migrant women mainly from Eastern Europe make up 90% of those available for commercial sexual services in the city, as is particularly evident in this investigation.

Therefore it is disappointing that Mr. Lyons gets to walk free from the court with a suspended sentence.Fundamentally we believe those who organise and profit from prostitution, the pimps and traffickers, should be the target of Garda investigations. We also believe that those same individuals should bear the full brunt of the law.

“Considering the amount of time and resources which were required to prosecute Mr Lyons, and considering the gravity of the offences, it is disappointing that he did not receive a custodial sentence. It sends a message that those who organise and profit from prostitution will be treated leniently by the criminal justice system.

“We believe that someone who seriously profits from prostitution should receive a sentence commensurate with the severity of the crime.”