Two men told gardai they had made marriage proposals to a woman accused of operating a brothel in a city centre apartment, the Galway District Court heard this week before bail was refused.
The case came again before the court on Monday for the purpose of clarifying the identity of the accused and her address. Monica Ciuciu (34 ) is charged with acting or assisting in the management of a brothel on February 11, 2012, contrary to Section 11 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences ) Act 1993, at a rental address given as apartment 3, 15 Mary Street.
However Detective Garda John Maloney gave evidence this week that there was still difficulty verifying Ciuciu’s address. He said that the owner of the Mary Street apartment said the accused had never been a tenent and that the person who had leased it was now nowhere to be found.
Defence solicitor Ronan Murphy said that his client had furnished gardai with an ESB bill naming her, and a man, as living at Cois Clair, Claregalway. Det Garda Maloney replied that he did not believe the utility bill to be authentic and that the man who resides at that address had made a statement to gardai claiming that he had been due to marry the accused. He added that a Romanian man, who had been arrested at the same time, had claimed that he was also to marry Ciuciu. Regarding the identity of the accused, Det Garda Maloney said that he was satisfied the details of the Romanian National Identity card, used by her to travel to this country, were correct.
After hearing two men had claimed to have made marriage proposals, Judge Mary Fahy became concerned, asking Det Garda Maloney: “Is there any question of trafficking?” The court heard that gardai had so far uncovered no evidence of trafficking during the investigation.
Mr Murphy later informed the court that his client intended to enter a plea of not guilty to the charge in due course.
Judge Fahy refused bail and remanded the accused in continuing custody to appear at Galway District Court again on March 12.
Ciuciu had been arrested, along with her co-accused Ioan Bizau (28 ) who remains in custody charged with acting or assisting in the management of a brothel plus a further charge of possession of cocaine.
