High Court finds Vietnamese woman was trafficking victim forced to commit crime

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The High Court ruled that gardaí had failed to identify a Vietnamese woman as a trafficking victim who had been forced to commit the alleged crime. The proceedings were reported on 15 April 2015.

Justice Iseult O’Malley found failures in the Garda investigation and State policies and procedures for identifying trafficking victims. She found that no plausible explanation had been offered for the woman being locked inside the premises in circumstances suggesting she was not in control.

In November 2012, gardaí raided a cannabis growhouse at an industrial estate in west Dublin. The premises were locked from outside with padlocks and steel roller shutters. Officers found the woman in a small bedroom beside the rooms containing the plants and arrested her on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance with intent to supply.

During Garda interviews, the woman said she had spent a month there, turning heat lights on and off at specified times. Men brought her food and made clear she could not leave. She said she had expected work cleaning or minding children when brought to Ireland.

The report said she was subsequently charged and had spent two and a half years in the Dóchas Centre women’s prison awaiting trial without bail.