{"id":199654,"date":"2025-11-25T16:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T16:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/199654\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T16:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T16:49:09","slug":"man-56-accused-of-using-vulnerable-young-women-for-sex-in-exchange-for-drugs-over-four-years-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/199654\/","title":{"rendered":"Man (56) accused of using vulnerable young women for sex in exchange for drugs over four years \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Belfast<\/a> man allegedly used a vulnerable young woman over a four-year period by providing her with drugs in exchange for sex, the Belfast High Court<\/a> has heard.<\/p>\n

Thomas Crossey (56) also arranged to have up to 25 other men pay him to sleep with her at his flat in the city, it was claimed.<\/p>\n

Mr Crossey, of Henderson Avenue in the north of the city, denies charges of controlling prostitution for gain, human trafficking and causing someone to engage in sexual activity.<\/p>\n

He faces further counts of false imprisonment and common assault related to an investigation launched last month.<\/p>\n

Refusing his application for bail, a judge described the alleged offending as \u201cvile\u201d if proven.<\/p>\n

The complainant, a 22-year-old woman addicted to cocaine and heroin, told police she escaped from Mr Crossey\u2019s flat on October 22nd this year by biting him after he tried to prevent any exit.<\/p>\n

She subsequently claimed he had coerced and sexually exploited her since they first met in 2021 when she was 18.<\/p>\n

In an account to detectives, she alleged Mr Crossey organised taxis to bring her to his home where she was supplied with drugs in return for sex.<\/p>\n

Crown counsel argued that in explicit phone messages the defendant referred to the woman as a \u201cnurse\u201d who also injected him with substances. <\/p>\n

Mr Crossey was said to have made her wear various outfits and perform a number of different sexual activities at meetings two or three times a month over the four-year period. <\/p>\n

The court heard she also suspects Mr Crossey set up an escort profile under her name, using photos from a Facebook account.<\/p>\n

He then allegedly received phone calls from random men who arrived at the flat and paid him \u00a3100 or \u00a3150 for her to go into the bedroom with them. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf she didn\u2019t, the defendant would not let her have any drugs, so she did it every time, faking a smile and doing what they wanted,\u201d counsel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis happened 20 to 25 times with different men over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

He argued that detectives can corroborate parts of the alleged victim\u2019s account through phone messages Mr Crossey sent her and other supporting evidence.<\/p>\n

At least two other women are believed to have attended the flat for similar purposes, according to the prosecution.<\/p>\n

Mr Crossey\u2019s lawyer told the court he vehemently denies the alleged offences and provided an account to police about how he knew the woman.<\/p>\n

Claiming inconsistencies in her account to police, the barrister submitted: \u201cShe also has very significant mental health issues, there are issues in respect of her credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denying bail, however, Mr Justice McAlinden cited the risks of further offending and potential interference with the investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is quite vile offending, if it is established,\u201d the judge stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Belfast man allegedly used a vulnerable young woman over a four-year period by providing her with drugs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[663,9,10,13,14,6,10476,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-199654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-high-court","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-world","23":"tag-world-news","24":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115611367234618175","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}