Man jailed on prostitution charges to be freed because of time already served

However, with an order for the sentence to be served half in jail and half on licence, 59-year-old Martin Heaney will be set free within hours as he has already served more than the equivalent waiting for his case to progress.

Heaney was also made subject to a Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Order which places numerous restrictions on him for the next seven years including where he lives, what work he does, who he can socialise with and what devices he can have such as mobile phones or laptops.

Jailing the Co Down man at Craigavon Crown Court, sitting in Belfast and with several of the victims watching proceedings by video-link, Judge Patrick Lynch QC said it was clear that Heaney “was using women, many of whom were extremely vulnerable whether through young age, mental health difficulties, drug misuse or general deprivation”.

“They’re often unfortunate members of our society that the defendant in essence preyed upon for the purpose of his own sexual gratification and for the purpose of making money,” said the judge, revealing that when one of the victims fell pregnant, Heaney not only kept her working as a prostitute but also used her pregnancy as a “selling point” for customers.

As long ago as last November former taxi and bus driver Heaney, with an address at Maypole Park in Dromore but currently residing at HMP Maghaberry, entered guilty pleas to 10 counts of controlling the prostitution of 10 women “in expectation of gain for yourself,” 10 counts of human trafficking females in that he “arranged or facilitated the travel” of 10 women “with a view to them being exploited”, and seven charges of voyeurism by “recording another person doing a private act for the purpose of sexual gratification and knowing they did not consent to being recorded”.

Heaney also admitted single counts of inciting a female to become a prostitute and acquiring criminal property “namely cash and money transfers” with all of the offences committed over more than eight years between June 1 2011 and September 30 2019.

When the case was opened by prosecuting QC David McDowell a few weeks ago, he said it was “apparent that a number of common features exist between the stories of the women,” describing how the women under Heaney’s control had to have unprotected sex with him and multiple customers, often more than one a night and that unbeknownst to them, Heaney would record them having sex.

Indeed it was when those videos were uncovered when Heaney was arrested in September 2019 that many of the victims were identified by detectives.

“While some were willing prostitutes, a number of the women had wished to engage only in dancing and stripping but were turned eventually to prostitution,” said the senior barrister, explaining how “many of them were young, some just 18 and most if not all, were from difficult circumstances, often living in temporary accommodation and some of them had drug habits”.

The court heard how Heaney was in charge of advertising, using photographs he had taken himself and many times, he held the phone attributable to each woman, taking the calls, arranging the appointments, “liaising with customers and taking them into his trust”.

Frequently making the women use multiple names and profiles to increase business and profit, “he drove them to appointments with customers on both sides of the border”.

“He would also take them to his house in Dromore to have sex with customers and some, he would take to a ‘sex cinema’ in Dublin where they would have sex with more than one man,” revealed Mr McDowell adding that in many occasions, “there were multiple clients on one night”.

In addition to meeting clients, Heaney suggested the women “do webcam work – performing sexual acts on a webcam and sometimes, one woman would be required to work with another”.

Heaney set the rates and his cut was anywhere between 20-50%. The court heard that when he was arrested, his bank account contained £150,000.

While the prosecution and Probation Board had sought to argue that Heaney is a dangerous offender and posed a significant risk of causing serious harm, Judge Lynch said that having considered the reports, it was his view that the seven-year STPO would be sufficient to protect vulnerable women from being exploited by Heaney.

He warned Heaney that a breach of any of the dozen prohibitions “will be a criminal offence of itself” for which he would be liable to be sent back to prison.