A woman who falsely claimed she was being held captive and being forced to work as a prostitute has been jailed for two years and three months.
Brenda Emmanuel (34), who was previously living in hostel accommodation in Carrickmacross, Monaghan has now moved to County Louth.
Brenda Emmanuel (34) arrived at Store Street Garda Station in Dublin in October 2019 and told them she had just managed to escape her captives. She said she had travelled from her village in Nigeria six months earlier to Ireland to work as a home help.
She said a woman had organised her transportation and she was instructed to engage in certain rituals and afterwards she was threatened that if she didn't partake she would be killed. Emmanuel said she had never travelled before and she was provided with certain documentation as she travelled with this woman to Ireland.
She was collected from Dublin Airport and brought to a house in Balbriggan where she was held captive and while there she was forced to work every day as a prostitute. She estimated that she was effectively raped two to three times a day. Emmanuel said she had been told that the prostitution was necessary as she was now in debt to others because of the cost of her travelling to Ireland. She pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to three charges of knowingly making a false statement on dates between October 2019 and December 2020 at Store Street Garda Station. She made five statements to gardaí in total.
Sentencing Emmanuel, Judge Ronan Munro said unfortunately such cases as Emmanuel alleged do occur in the real world. He commended the gardaí for their "swift, professional and effective response" later describing their high quality detective work as "painstaking".
Judge Munro noted that the maximum sentence for the offence is five years. He set a headline sentence of four years which he reduced to three years taking into account the mitigation.
Judge Munro suspended the final nine months of the three-year term on strict conditions.
