Court archive
Court reports mentioning Ballaghaderreen, Roscommon
2026-07-06 · Dublin
A Brazilian brothel-keeper, Ilamar Rodrigues Ribeiro, has had his appeal to reduce his prison sentence dismissed by the court. Ribeiro, who operated a brothel network across rural Ireland and laundered €800,000, was arrested at Dublin Airport in 2023 with child abuse material on his phone. He pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including brothel-keeping, money laundering, and possession of child pornography. The child abuse material, which included images and videos of pre-pubescent children, was described as the most serious category. Judge Patricia Ryan imposed a 10-and-a-half-year sentence in 2025, which included consecutive terms. Ribeiro's lawyers argued that the court should have suspended the sentence for the child abuse material due to his lack of prior convictions. However, Mr Justice Paul Burns ruled that the child pornography charge was of a different nature and required a separate sentence. He stated that the court could not ignore the severity of the offence. The investigation into Ribeiro began after two women came forward with trafficking allegations, leading to the identification of multiple properties used as brothels across Ireland.
2018-02-02 · Roscommon
The High Court has reserved judgement in the State's application to dismiss a damages claim brought by Peter Pringle. Pringle, an applicant, was originally sentenced to death for the murder of gardaí John Morley and Henry Byrne during a 1980 bank robbery in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon. His sentence was later commuted to 40 years imprisonment, of which he served 14 years and ten months until his conviction was quashed by the Court of Criminal Appeal in 1995. He now alleges the State was negligent and breached his constitutional rights by failing to disclose crucial evidence before his trial. The State seeks dismissal of the claim, initiated in the mid-1990s, citing inordinate delay, while Pringle denies any delay on his part. Additionally, Pringle has brought a separate motion for the State to discover documents related to a 2002 DNA analysis by the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham. This analysis compared hair samples from the robbery vehicle with a voluntary blood sample provided by Pringle in 1994. The State informed Pringle's lawyers in 2003 that the results provided strong support for the hair originating from him. Pringle believes this report is intended to halt his damages claim and seeks the associated paperwork, which he claims has not been provided. The State denies these claims and opposes the discovery motion. Ms Justice Carmel Stewart reserved judgement on both applications following submissions from both parties.