Former swim coach Derry O’Rourke was convicted of child sexual abuse.

Derry O’Rourke of Virginia Road, Cavan, a former Irish international swim coach, has been convicted of rape and sexual assault at the Central Criminal Court. O’Rourke, now 78 years old, pleaded guilty to the rape and indecent assault which occurred 35 years ago. The victim was only 13 and 14 years old when O’Rourke targeted her between October 1989 and June 1990. The trial judge instructed the jury to acquit O’Rourke of four of the counts of alleged indecent assault.

The jury deliberated for over five hours before returning 12 guilty verdicts to 11 counts of indecent assault and one of rape. The accused did not react as the verdicts were announced. O’Rourke is a serial rapist and paedophile, having been convicted of sexual crimes against minors on three previous occasions. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 1998 after entering a guilty plea to 29 offences, including the sexual assault, indecent assault and defilement of multiple teenage girls between the late 70s and early 90s.

In 2000, he was handed another four-year sentence for a further 19 counts of sexual and indecent assaults during the period from July 1970 to December 1992. One of the victims was only ten years old at the time. A third 10-year sentence was imposed in 2005 for two counts of rape and two counts of indecent assault between 1975 and 1978. Acknowledging the difficulty of the subject matter of the trial, Ms Justice Melanie Greally sincerely thanked the jury, stating that they had “given it 100 per cent.”

O’Rourke will be sentenced on July 30th following the delivery of a victim impact statement. During the trial, the Court heard how the victim, now 48 years old, considered herself as “underdeveloped” when O’Rourke first “noticed” her. She stated, “My bra was not even 30 AA, I was very skinny, with short hair, and I looked like a child,” she only weighed about “four and a half to five stone” at the time. The victim trained with the swimming team almost daily, and O’Rourke carried out his assaults under the guise of “muscle checks” to improve her swimming performance.

O’Rourke would bring her into a room alone, and while she had her hands above her head, he would rub her breasts from behind her. The victim estimated the assaults generally lasted around 5 minutes, and O’Rourke would comment that she “needed to work harder” but was “a good girl”. After some time, the “muscle check” assaults worsened, and O’Rourke would also digitally penetrate the girl. O’Rourke would instruct the girl to “just be quiet” as they needed “to get this done”. She never told anyone about O’Rourke’s assaults as she thought the “muscle checks” were “legitimate” at the time.

The victim explained that O’Rourke did not contact her during the school summer holidays, but she recommenced swim training in the new year; he then raped her in the same room he used to conduct the “muscle checks”. Following the rape, the victim left the swim team but still did not tell her parents or another adult. The jury was told that she was “in a state of shock” following the assault, she felt “violated” and that “the trust had been broken.”

During cross-examination, Michael Bowman SC defending O’Rourke, alleged that the accused had no memory of her being a student at the school or participating in the swimming team. The woman refused this assertion. Mr Bowman also highlighted to the court that O’Rourke was in ill-health and was hospitalised recently, but accepted this was not a reason to delay sentencing.