Victims angered by week amnesty for paedophile

VICTIMS of paedophile swimming coach Derry O’Rourke were left in anger and despair yesterday as their abuser walked free from jail with no obligation to notify gardaí of his whereabouts for the next seven days.

O’Rourke was released as scheduled from the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise early yesterday morning after serving just nine years for a reign of terror that destroyed the lives of children entrusted to his care for almost two decades.

A Prison Service spokesperson said the 59-year-old father of six from Edenderry, Co Offaly, had been fully briefed on his responsibilities under the Register of Sex Offenders Act and had signed a document acknowledging he understood his obligations.

However, under the act, he has a full week to roam freely before registering his address with gardaí. He will then be legally obliged to keep gardaí informed of his movements and any further change of address.

The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) said full use should be made of a stipulation of the courts that O’Rourke remain under supervision for eight years after his release. The condition was attached to a sentence handed down to him by Mr Justice Paul Carney in 2005 when he was already in jail for a litany of other sex abuse offences.

“It’s very important that the monitoring of him is very rigid,” said DRCC chief executive, Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop.

“It’s terribly important for people to know that Justice Carney said that he had to have post-release supervision for eight years.

“That’s more than just being on the sex offenders register. That means the probation officer can at any time call on him of the day or night. We would call on the Probation and Welfare Service to really enforce that very rigorously.”

Ms O’Malley-Dunlop also called for a review of the system of automatic remission for prisoners on the basis of their good behaviour in jail. All inmates are entitled to have their sentence cut short by a quarter for good behaviour during their term.

“That type of good behaviour is not good enough in this case. He should have served his full 12 years,” Ms O’Malley-Dunlop said.

O’Rourke, who was one of the country’s most influential swimming coaches, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 1998, seven years in 2001 and 10 years in 2005 for over 30 sample rape and sexual assault charges relating to a dozen young swimmers he coached between the 1970s and 1990s.

All the sentences ran concurrently, however, meaning they came to only 12 years in total and while, with remission, his release this week could have been calculated, many of his victims had not realised he was getting out and were outraged that their only notification came through the media.

Victims who spoke of their anguish on RTÉ’s Liveline programme yesterday, were joined by others who suffered at the hands of fellow national swimming coach, George Gibney, who fled to the US after his abuses were revealed.

Former Olympic swimmer Gary O’Toole, who was Gibney’s protégé, told presenter Joe Duffy about hearing an account of Gibney’s abuse, after which he confronted him.

At the time, O’Toole was just 15 months away from his second Olympic Games and hotly tipped to bring home a medal, yet he walked away from Gibney leaving himself without a club and coach.

The resulting Olympics were a disaster for O’Toole and Gibney, who was acting as a TV pundit, poured scorn on his former pupil’s efforts in every race.

“He didn’t waste one opportunity to belittle me or to make me feel bad.”

The games debacle made it all the harder for O’Toole when he began approaching parents of children swimming with Gibney to warn them about the coach.

“It looked extremely suspicious at the time because of the fact that he had been so critical of me on the TV. It looked like I was absolutely the most vindictive person that ever set foot in the country,” he said.

“I was told that I was lying, that that could never be true, that he (Gibney) was an upstanding member of society and how dare I accuse him of such crimes.”

O’Toole’s efforts, supported by his family, paid off. Victims began reporting Gibney’s abuse to the gardaí and as a result of the ensuing publicity, victims of Derry O’Rourke also found the courage to reveal what was happening to them.