The Sex Workers’ Alliance Ireland (SWAI) said it had provided support to the two women during the course of the criminal investigation into Gheorghe Goidan, who is in jail awaiting sentencing.

Kate McGrew, SWAI director, told The Times: “As a result of the bravery of these women, this man has now been prosecuted. We are heartened to see that our work and liaising with gardaí have resulted in a conviction. It is all too rare for sex workers to get justice.”

Mr Goidan, 46, contacted the women via the “escortsireland.ie” website and met them separately in hotel rooms in Portlaoise. He then pulled a knife on them and threatened them before repeatedly assaulting and raping them.

He pleaded not guilty to offences including rape, sexual assault, oral rape and anal rape on 7 September 2017.

After a trial at Dublin Central Criminal Court, a jury of six men and six women returned guilty verdicts on all counts. Mr Goidan had previously pleaded guilty to robbing the two women.

During the trial the jury heard that both women, who had not known one another, were from the Czech Republic and had both come to Ireland to sell sex. They advertised their services on the escortsireland.ie website and booked themselves into the respective hotel rooms.

The first woman met Mr Goidan, who had booked an appointment through the website, at 11am. Mr Goidan pulled a knife and threatened to cut the woman if she didn’t do what he asked.

He told her to hand over any money she had. He then sexually assaulted and raped her. After the attack he took a photo of her national identity card and threatened her in the Czech language and told her to leave the country.

He left the hotel room with her mobile phone and laptop and the woman contacted a friend and told her what had happened.

Within 12 hours, Mr Goidan made a second booking on escortsireland.ie and met up with the second victim. He pulled a knife and told her he would cut her.

He raped her repeatedly before ejaculating in her mouth, causing the woman to vomit. He took her money, mobile phone and cash.

Both women told the jury they were afraid Mr Goidan was going to kill them during the attacks.

They both identified a suspect on CCTV footage and gardaí identified the vehicle he drove away in and used CCTV to track his route to a toll booth on the M6 motorway.

Investigators then retrieved the registration of the car and linked the car back to Mr Goidan.

Ms Justice Tara Burns remanded Mr Goidan in custody to 15 July 2019 for sentence. She thanked the jurors for their work on a “particularly difficult case” and excused them from jury duty for ten years.

Court reporting by Declan Brennan, CCC.nuacht