Ireland secures landmark human trafficking convictions: traffickers jailed for 24 years

Two men have been sentenced to 24 years in prison for human trafficking in the first conviction of its kind in the Irish Republic, a Dublin court ruled on Thursday. The landmark case, prosecuted by the Director of Public Prosecutions, centred on the exploitation of seven victims—six men and one woman—who were held in substandard conditions in a rural house and apartment in Co Donegal. The traffickers, identified as Poniza Pogosyan and another man, were convicted on multiple counts including forced labour, coercion, and false imprisonment, following a trial that concluded last month .

Judge Mary Irvine, presiding over the Central Criminal Court, described the offences as “a grave violation of human dignity” and noted that the victims had been subjected to psychological and physical control over an extended period. The court heard that the victims, who were recruited under false pretences, were forced to work long hours with little pay and lived in squalid conditions without access to basic amenities. The traffickers had used threats of violence and deportation to maintain their grip on the victims, several of whom were undocumented migrants.

The case marks a significant milestone in Ireland’s efforts to combat human trafficking, coming nearly two decades after the country first criminalised the offence in 2008. Gardaí (Irish police) launched the investigation in 2023 after receiving multiple reports of exploitation in the Donegal region. Superintendent Michael O’Sullivan, head of the Garda National Protective Services Bureau, said the conviction sends a clear message that such crimes will not go unpunished. “This case demonstrates our commitment to identifying and prosecuting those who seek to profit from human misery,” he stated .

In a separate but equally disturbing case, a former teacher from Donegal was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison for sexually abusing 19 boys over a 25-year period. Patrick Sharkey, 83, faced 132 charges related to the abuse, which occurred between 1970 and 1995. The court heard that Sharkey had groomed his victims, many of whom were pupils at the school where he taught, and subjected them to prolonged psychological trauma. The case has reignited calls for a national inquiry into historical child abuse in Irish institutions .

Meanwhile, in South Africa, two men were sentenced in what police described as the world’s largest rhino horn trafficking case. Dawie Groenewald, the mastermind behind the operation, received a fine of 2 million rand or a four-year prison term, while his accomplice, Tielman Erasmus, was handed a similar sentence. The pair faced over 1,700 charges, including illegal hunting, racketeering, and money laundering, in a case that spanned nearly two decades. The convictions follow a lengthy investigation that exposed a sophisticated network trafficking rhino horns to Asia .