Former Olympic swimming coach George Gibney has been jailed for more than 15 years for the sexual abuse of four girls in the 1970s and 1980s.
In July, a Central Criminal Court jury found Gibney guilty of 39 counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted rape of children.
The jury acquitted him of one count of indecently assaulting one of the complainants on a date between 1976 and 1977.
Sentencing Gibney on Monday, Judge Mícheál O’Higgins imposed an aggregate sentence of 16 years and eight months, with 14 months suspended. This results in a sentence of 15 years and six months in prison.
Gibney (78) had only been referred to as a “sports coach” during the trial due to reporting restrictions, but these were removed after the guilty verdict, meaning he could be named.
In sentencing, the judge said he took note of the young ages of the victims, and the predatory context whereby Gibney took advantage of his authority to assault children in his care. Mitigating factors included Gibney’s age, his failing health, the fact that he did not oppose extradition from the United States and his guilty plea, the judge said.
The judge said Gibney “insinuated himself into the friendship group” of his victims’ parents.
George Gibney, in glasses and green jacket, photographed in 2019 close to his home near Orlando, Florida. Photograph: Mark Horgan
He said the “systemic and repeated” abuse and “predatory nature” of Gibney’s actions all placed the attempted rape offence – the most serious offence – on a “higher plane”, leading to the sentence of 12 years, which he reduced by two years to give a net sentence of 10 years.
He said the indecent assault charges were complicated by the “sheer number” of counts. The judge said he regarded each of these offences in the “highest range” of due to the “severity of the assaults”.
He set a headline sentence of two years, reduced to 20 months for each assault. Together, this resulted in a collective sentence for the assaults of six years and eight months, to run consecutively to the sentence for attempted rape.
The judge backdated the sentence to when Gibney first went into custody in July 2025.
Gibney was in court in a wheelchair on Monday for the sentencing.
After a previous case involving abuse allegations against Gibney was halted in 1993, he left Ireland and took up a role at a swimming club in Edinburgh. Later he moved to the US, first to Colorado, before settling in Orlando, Florida.
While Gibney had been a high-profile figure in Ireland, he lived in relative anonymity in the US.
A 10-part podcast series made by the Second Captains production company in conjunction with the BBC, Where is George Gibney?, put his name back in the spotlight. Four complainants, who were not involved in the early 1990s case, subsequently came forward and made complaints to gardaí.
After 30 years in the US, Gibney was extradited to Ireland to face charges last year. His defence expressed concerns about jurors who had listened to the podcast.
The abuse took place in Glenalbyn swimming pool, Stillorgan, and Newpark Sports Centre, Blackrock, both in Co Dublin.
The trial heard how some of the victims, aged between eight and 13 at the time, were abused by Gibney in his car when he gave them lifts to swimming practice.
Further abuse of two sisters happened in his home when they were babysitting his children.
The abuse included kissing, inappropriate touching and forced sex acts.
Gibney had initially been charged with 79 counts. He pleaded guilty to five counts of indecent assault at the beginning of the trial, while the judge threw out 33 charges after the prosecution’s evidence was heard.
After the verdict, Gibney indicated he would not appeal against his conviction.