Victims of sex offender outraged by early release

THE imminent release of convicted sex offender Derry O’Rourke has prompted outrage after victims of the former swimming coach said they had not been informed he would be walking free this week.

O’Rourke, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 1998 and received a further seven-year sentence in 2001 and a 10-year sentence in 2005, is expected to be released from the Midlands Prison by Thursday.

It is understood that he will be included on the sex offenders’ register and will have to notify gardaí about where he will be living.

The father-of-six from Edenderry in Offaly was originally convicted on 29 sample charges and on his last court appearance in 2005 pleaded guilty to two further charges of rape and two charges of indecent assault of a girl he trained in the 1970s. The 10-year term he received was back-dated to May 2000.

One of O’Rourke’s victims said yesterday that her life had been devastated as a result of what he did to her during the 1980s and that her mother had committed suicide as a result of the trauma.

“The Thursday before she died, she told me she loved me and she was sorry she ruined my life, that she didn’t look after me,” she told RTÉ news.

The victim also said that nobody from Swim Ireland, formerly the Irish Amateur Swimming Association, had ever been in touch with her, to see if she was okay, while all she knew about Derry O’Rourke’s release from prison was what she had read in a newspaper.

She said she would “drop dead” if she saw her former swimming coach again.

The abuse happened for up to seven years, she said, and there were many victims. “We were all close friends and none us knew what he was doing to each (of us),” she said.

Yesterday, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) said it was “extremely concerned” that victims had not been informed of the development.

“We have heard in the past how the gardaí aredeveloping policies and procedures whereby they will inform victims of the release of such offenders. Why has this not happened in this case?” asked DRCC chief executive Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop.

“For many years this man has caused untold damage to children in his care. He had been suitably punished and imprisoned for the wrongs he had done. Why has his sentence been shortened?”

She said that one of the basic recommendations for victim support is that the gardaí inform a victim when a perpetrator in a sexual crime is going to be released from prison.

A spokesperson for the Irish Prison Service said yesterday evening that, while the service has a victim liaison officer, crime victims would have to tell them in advance if they want to be notified on when a perpetrator is due to be released.

“We would then notify them or any transfer or any release and they would be kept informed of all circumstances. But we can’t go and seek out victims,” he said.

He added that the prison service would not always have the relevant information about victims.