Ex-swimming coach O'Rourke jailed for 10 more years on rape, indecent assault offences
The former Irish national swimming coach, Derry O'Rourke, who is serving sentences totalling 12 years for sex offences involving teenage girls, has been sentenced to a further 10 years for the rape and indecent assault of another girl he trained.
O'Rourke (aged 58), married with six children, of Edenderry, Co Offaly pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to two charges of rape and two counts of indecent assault on dates from 1975 to 1978 in relation to the victim at a Dublin school.
Mr Justice Paul Carney imposed a 10-year sentence for the rape charges and four years for indecent assault to run concurrently from March 2000. He ordered O’Rourke to remian under supervision for eight years from the date of his release.
Mr Paddy McCarthy SC, prosecuting, told Mr Justice Carney the complainant made a statement to gardaí in 1999 following media coverage of O’Rourke’s 1998 convictions. She had difficulty coming to terms with the offences which occurred while she was a promising swimmer between the ages of 14 and 18.
Detective Sergeant Sarah Keane said the victim had been a boarding pupil at the school during the 1970s and came under the twice daily coaching of O’Rourke.
During 1975 he met her each evening in a boiler room to discuss training and would touch her over and under her clothes. The door would be locked and no one else would be around.
From 1976 he had an office in which he made her sit on his knee. He would take off her underwear and penetrate her digitally and with a vibrator.
Det Sgt Keane said holidays home to her family were eroded by training and O’Rourke had total control of her. Swimming was her life and he became her sole friend. She believed that the abuse was an integral part of her training.
O’Rourke used "relaxation" sessions of massage to make the girl lie naked on the floor. During these sessions he digitally penetrated her, performed oral sex on her and masturbated himself. O’Rourke made her swim naked and would get into the pool to rub up against her.
Det Sgt Keane said he organised to put her on the pill to regulate her periods, ostensibly for swimming competitions. When he first had vaginal sex with her she asked what was happening and was told: "Close your eyes and keep still".
This happened on four occasions in late 1976. He never used a condom.
Det Sgt Keane said O’Rourke told her the abuse was in preparation for swimming competitions. She realised this was wrong but was taught not to question her coach.
She finished school in 1977 but continued to return to training session with him. Late in that year he became cool towards her and withdrew his attention. Her swimming became erratic and she gave up the sport in 1980.
O’Rourke agreed in a statement to gardaí in January 2000 that the victim’s version of events had been "for the most part accurate".
Mr Patrick Gageby SC, defending, said O’Rourke’s substantial time in prison has caused him to reflect. His attitude had changed and he was now a different character. When questioned in relation to this matter he did not require a solicitor and had made frank admissions to gardaí.
Mr Gageby said O’Rourke had been "very publicly identified as a very serious wrongdoer" and, "his wrongdoing had brought immense adverse publicity, rightly so, upon his head".
He said O’Rourke had offended grievously for a large number of years but had been a talented coach who had "brought some honour, though not very much" to people he worked with.
The emotional victim told the court: "This is my tsunami." She said the day she saw media coverage of O’Rourke’s crimes was the day she acknowledged what he had done to her. That realisation had caused a devastating emotional flow.
She said she has been overwhelmed by a sense of guilt, shame and responsibility for eight years, saying, "not any more, it is all yours".
"It has taken all my determination to deal with the hurt, pain, sadness and anger, and turn the tide of destructive forces that have arisen from what you did to me."
Mr Justice Carney said the victim of the "outrageous perpetrator" in this case was entitled, under statute, to anonymity.
He said the "grooming of the victim for the purposes the accused had in mind" was "horrific", as were the offences committed against her and the effects they had upon her.
In imposing the 10-year sentence, he took O’Rourke’s guilty plea into account. The sentence is backdated to March 13, 2000, the date he was charged with these offences. A judicial review caused delays in bringing the case to court.
O’Rourke was first jailed for 12 years in on January 30, 1998 by Judge Kieran O'Connor at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court after he pleaded guilty to 29 charges relating to offences involving 11 girls.
The charges covered unlawful carnal knowledge of girls under the age of 15, sexual assault and indecent assault, on dates from 1976 to 1992. The full indictment had 90 charges.
Judge O'Connor imposed sentences on 27 of the charges and made no order in relation to the remaining two. He sentenced him to two terms of 12 years for unlawful carnal knowledge, one each of seven and five years and eight terms of six years for indecent assault, five terms of three years for sexual assaults, and 10 terms of one year for other indecent assaults.
Mr Justice Carney jailed O’Rourke on August 27, 2000 for another four year sentence to run concurrently on 19 sample charges out of a total of 59 charges involving six girls.
The indecent and sexual assault offences took place on dates unknown between July 1970 and December 1992. One of the offences involved oral sex and the girls were aged between 10 and 19 years and were all being coached by him.
