Former Irish Olympic swimming coach George Gibney was labelled a ‘monster’ by his victims after being found guilty of sexually abusing four girls over 50 years ago
Convicted child abuser George Gibney’s victims have branded him a “monster” who abused his position as a swimming coach to prey on young women, a Dublin court has heard.
The former Irish Olympic swimming coach was found guilty of indecently assaulting four girls, as well as the attempted rape of one of the girls in a changing room when she was 12.
Harrowing victim impact statements read at Dublin’s Central Criminal Court today heard how the abuse was a secret one woman “carried in silence for years” as she watched Gibney being “lauded” and “hero-worshipped”.
Another victim said the legal process had been “traumatic,” with media reporting of the case being overly graphic.
She said she was relieved she never spoke to a counsellor about her ordeal as a request was made for notes from such sessions to be used as part of the trial.
Gibney, 78, pleaded guilty to five charges of indecently assaulting a girl in Ireland in 1976, but denied dozens of other charges of indecently assaulting the girls when they were aged between eight and 14, at various locations between 1971 and 1981.
Earlier this month, the jury returned guilty verdicts on 40 charges relating to incidents in the 1970s and 1980s.
A lawyer for Gibney confirmed in court today that he would not be appealing against his convictions.
The barrister said Gibney’s reputation was “entirely in tatters”, that he was not in the best health and that he “never receives visits” in prison, as a consequence of his actions.
He added that Gibney “accepts the verdicts of the jury”.
Delivering their victim impact statements in court, three of the women thanked the gardaí for supporting and listening to them.
One woman turned to face Gibney in the witness box and said she went to the gardaí as she wanted “an official record of your evilness”.
She said his assault of her was a “secret I carried in silence for years” as she watched him being “lauded” and “hero-worshipped” as she struggled.
Gibney held one of his hands in the other and looked ahead as she spoke.
She said she had no expectation when she first went to gardaí that charges would be filed, and that it was a “liberation of years of secrets” to tell the “truth of your degenerate behaviour”.
She said even though Gibney had tried to destroy her as a child, “the world will now know you as a convicted, serial paedophile”.
The victim added that the cross examination was “exhausting”, as she found it “distressing” to have to explain how he had controlled her, but that the guilty verdicts were “so overwhelmingly powerful, I cried”.
Another woman said the court process was “exceedingly traumatic and lengthy” and that she had been told that she was “a witness for the state”.
She said this conveyed to her the “lack of empathy or understanding” for victims in the legal process. “I am a victim first and a witness for the state second,” she told the court.
The victim said she had held the “deep dark secret within” and did not know counselling existed years ago.
She said during the trial process, any counselling notes from sessions she had were sought, and “thankfully, I had none” as she feared she would be subjected to “further humiliation”.
She added: “I feel angry, so angry” and retraumatised by the court process. The woman said the abuse had also affected her relationships.
She also criticised those who were “licking their chops salaciously” at the “blow by blow coverage” – and praised members of the media who reported it without the graphic detail.
She also questioned who she would have been “had this manipulator not violated me” at a time when “Catholic Ireland” swept abuse “under the mat” and left victims to “fend for themselves”.
The woman told the court Gibney’s abuse was even “hitting me in the wallet” as she explained she did not get paid if she missed work, but wanted to be in court for as much of the trial as she could.
A third victim said she was left “emotionally battered” and “humiliated” by Gibney, the press, and by a legal system “in need of reform”.
Another victim, who said she remembers Gibney’s car headlights at the roundabout as he came to collect her, said she “didn’t feel like prey then but does now” as she recalled the memory.
She said she had nightmares about Gibney during the pandemic and smoked heavily, and that when she went to gardaí, she was not being “courageous as reported in the media, I was desperate”.
She added: “If it weren’t for the Gardaí and my children, I don’t know where I’d be.”
She said the gardaí had “made me feel safe for the first time in my life” despite the process of giving evidence being “gruelling”.
Gibney’s lawyer told the court that his client had no previous convictions before this trial.
“In my respectful position, the person who is before you is a very different person than the person who committed these offences against young children who were in his care,” he said.
Gibney is due to be sentenced on October 12.
