Justice may finally catch up to George Gibney, the man Irish swimming tried to forget
But the so-called saviour of Irish swimming, George Gibney, is accused of being a predator who used his high-profile celebrity position in sports to abuse dozens of young swimmers he coached.
On Monday, he was arrested in Florida and is facing 79 charges of attempted rape, relating to the alleged sexual abuse of four girls, court documents show.
Gibney who is now aged 77, will appear in a Florida Court in the US next week after being arrested by US marshals on foot of an Irish extradition warrant.
Gardaí have been involved in a long-running international attempt to extradite the former coach, and he is wanted here for sexual assault offences.
They include 78 for indecent assault and one for attempted rape.
The alleged victims are four girls, and the time of the abuse was between January 1, 1971, and August 14, 1974.
Escaped justice
The disgraced coach was able to hide for decades once he left Ireland shortly after he escaped facing justice here.
Former Irish swimming coach George Gibney in 1988. Gardaí have been involved in a long-running international attempt to extradite the former coach, and he is wanted here for sexual assault offences. Picture: Billy Stickland/Inpho
His high profile soon came crashing down after he had been confronted by one of his former champion swimmers, Gary O'Toole, who told an award-winning BBC podcast Where's George Gibney? about quitting the sport after he learned that Gibney had abused his assistant coach Chalkie White as a child.
He said Gibney made him wait poolside for some time before speaking to him.
O'Toole then told him: 'I am calling in to tell you I'm leaving".
'He looked at me, like as if he was the most shocked man in the universe. He said 'why'?
I said 'I think you know why I'm leaving'.'
There was wall to wall coverage in newspapers about George Gibney's success during his career having coached from the late 1980s to the early 90s until he vanished and hid all over the world. File picture: Eamonn Farrell/© RollingNews.ie
The tense exchange came about after a conversation on a flight to the world championships in Perth in 1990 with White prior to this.
White was now in his 30s and began to understand the depraved actions of his colleague — even though they had been working together, they never spoke about what Gibney did to him.
But he did approach O'Toole, who was 21 at the time, on the flight to ask him if he had been abused by Gibney and he replied no.
O'Toole told the BBC podcast he came to learn what his coach had done.
'It all started to make sense then and it lent credence to Chalkie's allegations.
'The minute he said it, I believed him. That's when everything began to unravel for Gibney.'
For years, up to that point, there was nobody like Gibney, who loved publicity and appeared on TV chats shows all over the world.
There was wall to wall coverage in newspapers about his success during his career having coached from the late 1980s to the early 90s until he vanished and hid all over the world.
George Gibney after returning from the Seoul Olympics in South Korea at Dublin Airport in 1988. Picture: Independent News and Media/Getty
O'Toole went on to meet survivors of Gibney's abuse and in 1993, it looked certain that he would face trial here on 27 counts of indecency and carnal knowledge of children.
Supreme Court ruling
But shockingly, he avoided any prosecution when his legal team successfully argued in one of their reasons for disputing a trial, that too much time had passed since the alleged offences.
The prosecution trial was then halted during a judicial review, which ended up in the Supreme Court, who ruled in Gibney's favour.
Gardaí tried to launch a second investigation in 1997, but no charges were brought.
Gibney immediately left Ireland after the Supreme Court ruling and went to Scotland before travelling to a number of countries around the world including Thailand and then settled in the US where he was eventually arrested. He continued to train swimmers.
Once in the US he received a green card and there were rumours of him going on religious trips to Peru and Thailand.
He had initially received support from people who believed he was being set up or falsely accused.
He lived with another man in the US but largely led a carefree living escaping justice for decades.
On Monday, dressed in a brown jacked and blue top, he appeared before Orlando District Court Judge Daniel Irick for 11 minutes to face charges.
The charges came about after gardaí reopened the case following the broadcasting of the BBC podcast where reporters tracked him down in the US for the first time in years.
Judicial co-operation
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the arrest shows the importance of judicial co-operation with the US.
He paid tribute to gardaí for diligent police work.
Speaking to reporters during a trade mission to Japan, Mr Martin said: 'I think we all listened to the podcast. I think it's important that we have an agreement with the US — gardaí have been working very diligently and in a detailed way, I have no doubt.
'We will await the next step now,' he added.
One of his victims told the podcast that he abused boys and girls and did it in the dressing rooms.
She recalled how he did 'everything and anything' to her, and made her wait in the dressing room for lengthy periods of time until the building was empty before he would rape her.
She also claimed he stalked her for years when she got older.
She said it was 'hard to believe that you just did as you were told, now I know he was waiting for the whole place to clear of everybody else.
'I even picture it, that I was going to school, just living even while, in parallel is the horrible abuse that is going on.
"Yet I'm getting up and going training and going to school and doing homework, I can see myself.
"It is a funny world, isn't it? To picture someone keeping all that in. I can see all my friends around my sisters and I'm kinda thinking, that is a funny kinda bubble that you are locked in.
'It's not like being locked in a bunker and fed through a window, I was living, I was going to school, I was locked into that world of powerlessness.'
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