ONE of the country's most notorious criminals is due for release from jail within the next fortnight.

Martin Morgan, nicknamed 'The Beast' by the tabloids, has a release date of 7 June.

He will have served 27 months of a three-year prison sentence handed down in March 2008 after a lengthy garda investigation of organised prostitution.

Morgan had nine months shaved off his prison system in the standard remission available to all prisoners.

The 46-year-old Dubliner was found guilty of running a city brothel, jailed and fined €24,000 for his crimes.

One of his brothels was targeted as part of Operation Quest, set up in 2005 to deal with organised criminal prostitution in Dublin.

A trial that was scheduled to take just seven days ended up taking 18 days. After 11 hours of deliberation, a jury unanimously found Morgan guilty of organising prostitution and acting or assisting in the running of a brothel.

On 10 October 2005, the brothel was raided and Morgan and his "consort", Deena Edridge were arrested. Edridge claimed it was her business and that Morgan was just a "good friend". She was later jailed for a year for her part in the brothel.

Morgan claimed after his arrest that he had no business interests whatsoever in Ireland and that he had simply visited the country to see his children.

In an interview with the Sunday Tribune at the time, Morgan protested his innocence: "This whole case is a big deal over nothing that's been blown out of all proportion. The tabloids call me 'The Beast'. What rubbish. I've been portrayed as an evil criminal in the tabloids. Do I seem like an evil criminal?"