Swim coach convicted of raping teen girl

- Sonya McLean & Claire Henry -

Former Irish international swimming coach Derry O’Rourke has been convicted of raping and sexually assaulting a teenage girl 35 years ago.

Derry O’Rourke (78) of Virgina Road, Cavan, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to one count of rape and 15 counts of indecent assault in the school on dates between October 1989 and June 1990. The complainant was between 13 and 14 years old at the time.

During the trial, the jury was directed by the trial judge to acquit O’Rourke of four of those charges, leaving the jury to consider one offence of rape and 11 charges of indecent assault.

The jury returned its verdict after five hours and 27 minutes of deliberations on the fifth day of the trial.

Ms Justice Melanie Greally remanded O’Rourke into custody for sentencing to July 30.

Mr Michael Bowman SC, defending, told the court that his client suffers from poor health and recently had a hospital stay, but he said he could see no reason to delay sentencing.

O’Rourke made no reaction as the 12 guilty verdicts were delivered.

O’Rourke is a convicted rapist, having been jailed for 12 years in January 1998 after he pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 29 offences involving 11 girls on dates between 1976 and 1992. The charges involved defilement, sexual assault and indecent assault.

In August 2000, O’Rourke was sentenced to four years in prison on 19 charges involving six girls. The indecent and sexual assaults 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.

O’Rourke was jailed for 10 years in January 2005 after he pleaded guilty to two charges of rape and two counts of indecent assault on dates from 1975 to 1978 in relation to the victim. This sentence was backdated to March 13, 2000.

Addressing the jury, Ms Justice Greally said, “I realise that this has been a difficult case and you have given it 100%. This was evident from the questions that you asked. Thank you sincerely, and I hope that this experience has brought something of value to you.”

Judge Greally excused the jury from duty for the next five years. She instructed the preparation of a victim impact statement for sentencing.

Earlier in the trial, the now 48-year-old woman told Patricia McLoughlin SC, prosecuting, that O’Rourke had begun as her sports coach while she was a student in secondary school. The woman described being “thrilled that someone had noticed her”.

The complainant was approximately 13 years of age, and she described herself as being about “four and a half to five stone in weight, I was underdeveloped, my bra was not even 30 AA, I was very skinny, with short hair, and I looked like a child.”

The jury heard that she trained nearly daily, and O’Rourke suggested that he carry out “muscle checks” to help her improve.

The woman said she was brought into a room, and O’Rourke would stand behind her and instruct her to put her hands above her head; she then described him “putting one hand on her right breast and the other on her left breast and moving his hands up and down”. She estimated this would last about five minutes.

During the “muscle check,” O’Rourke told the complainant that she was “a good girl” and said, “I needed to work harder.”

When asked if she had told anybody about this alleged continuous behaviour, she said, “No, because I thought it was legitimate.”

The complainant told Ms McLaughlin, prosecuting, that the “muscle checks” progressed and that O’Rourke would start by touching her breast and told her that he needed to do additional tests. She then said that he digitally penetrated her.

Ms McLaughlin asked the woman if O’Rourke said anything to her while this was happening, to which she replied he would say, “good girl,” “just be quiet,” and “we just need to get this done.”

The woman said she had no contact with O’Rourke over that year's summer holidays but resumed training again in September. On one occasion, when she resumed training, the coach took her to the same room where the alleged indecent assault took place and is alleged to have raped her.

The jury heard that after this incident, the girl did not tell her parents but told them she would no longer participate in the sport. She described being “in a state of shock” and feeling “awful”, “violated” and said “the trust had been broken.”

Michael Bowman, SC defending, put it to the woman during cross-examination that his client had no recollection of her in the school or being involved in the team.

The woman did not accept this.

Counsel further suggested that the room in which the rape took place was so small that there was not enough room for one person to lie down, not to mind two; the complainant did not accept this.

He will be sentenced on July 30.