World will know George Gibney as ‘convicted, serial paedophile’, says survivor
Former Irish swim coach George Gibney has been convicted of 39 counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted rape against four victims. He has been remanded in custody pending sentencing in October and his legal team has confirmed he will not appeal the verdict.
Why it matters
The conviction marks a significant legal conclusion to a long-standing case involving systemic abuse within Irish sports institutions.
A woman sexually abused by former swim coach George Gibney has said she gets to walk from court “free”, while the world will know him as a “convicted, serial paedophile”.
She told the Central Criminal Court that his abuse of her some 50 years ago caused “more than just a loss of innocence”; it brought about the “destruction of a previously happy and healthy childhood”.
“You were a person in authority. People respected and trusted you and you abused that position ... You took and took as you saw fit without a thought for the immediate or lifelong impact,” she told Gibney, who looked ahead into space from his wheelchair.
The woman was one of four found by a jury to have been abused by the coach as girls between the ages of eight and 13 about 50 years ago.
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