O’Rourke release - Shameful treatment of victims

IT is astonishing that three of the leading figures in Irish swimming during the 1980s were sinister criminals and predatory paedophiles.

All household names — Derry O’Rourke, George Gibney and Frank McCann — they abused many of the girls who had been entrusted to their care at the time.

Were it not for the courage of European silver medal winning swimmer Gary O’Toole, the systematic abuse might never have come to light. Aged 22 at the time, he took the abusers on but subsequently paid a high price as support from the world of Irish swimming vanished.