Escort Ireland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Escort Ireland is a website that advertises prostitution services in Ireland.

The website was set up by Patricia Albright in 1998 whilst the Censorship of Publications Board was taking action to ban In Dublin (magazine) from carrying prostitute advertisements.[1] Section 23 of the Irish Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994[2] explicitly prohibits the advertising of brothels and prostitution and, since 1999, no print publication in Ireland has carried escort advertisements. Escort Ireland operates as an English limited company outside of Irish jurisdiction in order avoid Irish law on the advertising of prostitution services.[3]

In 2001 Escort Ireland was at the centre of Ireland’s first case of internet defamation after a Galway businessman admitted advertising a rival businesswoman’s personal details on the website, which led to her receiving hundred of calls asking for prostitution services.[4]

The Escort Ireland website is a controversial issue in Ireland and the website is regularly discussed in the media. To date no action has been taken against the website's operators but in February 2007 a Hot Press (magazine) feature on the sex trade in Ireland claimed that Garda Síochána (Irish police) investigations into prostitution have been re-focused to look at what they can do about Escort Ireland and other websites that advertise the services of prostitutes in Ireland.[5]

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ INTERVIEW WITH Patricia Albright from ESCORT-IRELAND.COM, Sex.ie, October 2006..
  2. ^ Irish Statute Book, Government of Ireland..
  3. ^ Click for sex: Irish law powerless against the rise of online prostitution, Irish Examiner, January 2007..
  4. ^ Ireland has first case of internet defamation, Out-Law.com, May 2001..
  5. ^ A game of two halves?, Hot Press, February 2007..