{"id":537083,"date":"2026-07-07T07:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T07:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/537083\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T07:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T07:32:08","slug":"george-gibney-faces-justice-after-50-years-of-evasion-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/537083\/","title":{"rendered":"George Gibney faces justice after 50 years of evasion \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facing the jury from a bench across court 20 in the Criminal Courts of Justice, with Judge M\u00edche\u00e1l O\u2019Higgins sitting to his right, former Irish Olympic swimming coach George Gibney<\/a> finally faced the sharp end of justice he had evaded for decades.<\/p>\n

A powerhouse in Irish swimming throughout the 1970s and 1980s, leading teams to the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul in 1988, the dishevelled 77-year-old sat still and expressionless as the court registrar read out the verdicts found by the jury of six men and six women, who agreed he had assaulted and abused girls at various locations in the State. <\/p>\n

Gibney was found guilty of sexually abusing four girls in the 1970s and 1980s in 39 out of 40 counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted rape.<\/p>\n

The jury acquitted him on one count of indecently assaulting one of the complainants on a date between 1976 and 1977.<\/p>\n

After the verdict was read out and the sentencing date set for July 29th, there was an outpouring of emotion as witnesses, some now in their 60s, and their families embraced each other along the corridors of the building, having lived with the assaults since their early days in school. <\/p>\n

Some of the charges for which Gibney was found guilty reached back 50 years, when the women were girls aged between eight and 15-years-old.<\/p>\n

Brought to court each day in a wheelchair, his rosary beads sometimes wrapped around a hand or loosely held on his lap, Gibney would have grown used to the faces of the jury as they filed in daily in the same order, occupying the same seats over the 11 days of the trial, the young forewoman placed closest to the judge\u2019s bench.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The George Gibney trial: \u2018Predatory\u2019 abuser operated at heart of Irish swimmingOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Gibney was easily visible, appearing daily in the same distinctive bright red top, sitting in the same place alone and largely staring into the wooden rail in front, sometimes cocking his head to hear his defence counsel Patrick Gageby BL and the prosecution counsel James Dwyer BL.<\/p>\n

Never animated, nor vocal except when he pleaded at the beginning of the trial, he appeared in frail condition as he hauled himself to his feet each day using the bench rail to lever his body.<\/p>\n

While he could not be named throughout the trial due to the nature of the charges, with the guilty finding he lost that anonymity.<\/p>\n

After the verdict, Swim Ireland paid tribute to the women\u2019s \u201cimmense courage in coming forward\u201d and thanked them for \u201ctheir resilience throughout a long and difficult process\u201d. <\/p>\n

In a statement, the organisation said the offences \u201ctook place at a time when Irish swimming lacked the governance and safeguarding structures that exist today. We are deeply saddened not only that these crimes occurred, but that it took so long for this case to reach a conclusion.\u201d <\/p>\n

It said the victims\u2019 bravery \u201chas been central to the transformation of our sport\u2019s safeguarding culture\u201d.<\/p>\n

As he was wheeled out of the court, the women who had brought so much agency and courage throughout the trial, stood sobbing and bearing witness to justice finally delivered, the words of O\u2019Higgins ringing in his ears.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Gibney, I remand you in custody until your sentencing.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facing the jury from a bench across court 20 in the Criminal Courts of Justice, with Judge M\u00edche\u00e1l…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[228104,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-537083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-george-gibney","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}