Former Irish Olympic swimming coach jailed over indecent assaults

A former Irish Olympic swimming coach has been jailed for indecently assaulting four girls and the attempted rape of one of them.

George Gibney was sentenced at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin to 16 years and eight months.

The 78-year-old was found guilty of indecently assaulting the four girls and the attempted rape of one of the girls in a changing room when she was 12.

He had pleaded guilty to five charges of indecently assaulting a girl in Ireland in 1976.

But he denied dozens of other charges of indecently assaulting the girls when they were aged between eight and 15, at various locations between 1974 and 1981.

Earlier this year, a jury returned guilty verdicts on 40 charges relating to incidents in the 1970s and 1980s.

Gibney, who was arrested in Florida last year, had lived in the US for years.

At the court on Monday, Judge Micheal O'Higgins described Gibney as a "manipulative predator" who had carried out "repulsive crimes" on "defenceless children" as he sentenced him to 16 years and eight months with the final 14 months suspended.

The judge said Gibney had been a skilled swimming coach of national and international renown but added: "From those heights he has fallen and his reputation now lies in tatters."

Mr Justice O'Higgins added that Gibney had indicated he accepts the verdicts and would not appeal.

(c) Sky News 2026: Former Irish Olympic swimming coach jailed over indecent assaults