High Court found failures in identifying Ms P as trafficking victim

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

The High Court ruled on 15 April 2015 that gardaí had failed to identify Ms P as a trafficking victim. Justice Iseult O’Malley found failures in the Garda investigation and State policies and procedures for identifying trafficking victims. The proceedings were reported on 15 April 2015.

Ms P, a 54-year-old Vietnamese woman, was found during a Garda raid in November 2012 at a cannabis growhouse in an industrial estate in west Dublin. The premises were locked from the outside with padlocks and steel roller shutters.

She was arrested on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance with intent to supply. Gardaí valued the cannabis plants at €940,800. The report said she was subsequently charged and had spent two and a half years in prison awaiting trial without bail.

During Garda interviews, she said she had been there for a month, turning heat lights on and off. Men brought food and made clear she could not leave. She said she had expected work cleaning or minding children when brought to Ireland.

A sergeant had told her solicitor that she might have been trafficked and mentioned that possibility when seeking an extension of her detention. She was nevertheless charged.

The judge said gardaí had offered no plausible theory explaining her being locked inside in circumstances consistent with her controlling the situation. Migrant Rights Centre Ireland assessed her as a trafficking victim and appeared as expert witnesses in the High Court.

This case may have concluded differently. The outcome has not yet been confirmed by a public source we could find.