Dublin to sentence swimming coach George Gibney — The Guardian

In Dublin, Ireland, former Olympic swimming coach George Gibney, 77, is due to be sentenced on Monday. In July, he was found guilty of 39 counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted rape. The crimes involved four young female athletes and occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, The Guardian reports.

Previous charges

Gibney was a prominent figure in Irish swimming: he founded the Trojan club in south Dublin and coached athletes at municipal swimming pools. He was also coach of Ireland’s team at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.

After allegations of child sexual abuse emerged, Gibney faced 27 charges of indecent acts and sexual offences. However, in 1993, the Supreme Court ruled that he could not stand trial because of the lengthy period that had elapsed since the alleged crimes. Gibney later moved to Scotland and then to the United States, where he lived in Colorado, California and Florida.

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New statements from victims

In 2020, attention was again drawn to the case by the 10-part BBC podcast Where is George Gibney?, hosted by Mark Horgan. Between 2020 and 2022, four victims, who had been minors at the time of the abuse, gave statements to Irish police. This led to new charges, an extradition warrant, Gibney’s arrest and his return to Ireland last year.

After the July verdict, the four victims told the court about the consequences of what they had endured. One of them said she had carried traumatic memories for more than half a century and experienced shame, pain and confusion. Another, who was nine years old at the time of the assaults, said that Gibney had abused a position of trust and destroyed the life of a child who had previously been happy and healthy.