“You have taken so much that was not yours” – The Irish Times

A woman who was raped and sexually abused as a teenager by former Irish swimming coach Derry O’Rourke told him: “You have taken so much that was not yours and nothing will ever give it back.”

The woman, now in her 40s, said the abuse “changed my world, my whole life, for the worse” and played a “big” role in her decision not to have children because she did not want to bring a child into the world that might have to suffer as she did.

In her victim impact statement at the Central Criminal Court, the woman said she felt unable to tell anyone for a long time after O’Rourke raped her in a room at her school. She said he made her “create a mask for myself” that “shut me down” and “shaped my life for years”.

She left her hometown and later the country because of O’Rourke’s “abhorrent” abuse and still lives outside Ireland, which she finds “so sad” “because there is so much beauty and goodness left here.” She said O’Rourke “spoiled all that” when she was a vulnerable child and “destroyed that belief in goodness and safety.”

O’Rourke (78), of Bailieboro, Co Cavan, has previously served a prison sentence for sexual offences against other children, including rape.

Judge Melanie Greally will sentence him on Wednesday after a jury unanimously found him guilty of one count of rape and 11 counts of indecent touching between 1989 and 1990, when she was between 13 and 14 years old. A Garda investigation began after the woman made a complaint in 2021.

During the trial, the woman said O’Rourke had offered to be her swimming coach when she was in high school and she was “thrilled that someone had noticed her.” She was about 13 years old and “looked like a child.”

She worked out almost daily and O’Rourke suggested he do “muscle testing” to help her improve by moving his hands up and down her breasts. She hadn’t told anyone because she thought it was “legit.” He later told her he needed to do more testing where he would digitally penetrate her after the breast “tests.”

When she resumed training after the summer holidays, O’Rourke once took her into the room where the “checks” took place and raped her. She did not tell anyone about the rape but told her parents that she was giving up swimming. She was “in a state of shock”, feeling “terrible” and “hurt” and that “trust had been broken”.

O’Rourke denied the allegations and denied knowing anything about the victim.

Patricia McLoughlin SC, representing the Attorney General, explained on Tuesday that the offences warranted a prison sentence of between 15 years and life imprisonment.

Michael Bowman SC, representing O’Rourke, submitted that the appropriate sentence was between 10 and 15 years. He said O’Rourke had no previous convictions at the time of the offences. He said O’Rourke accepted the jury’s verdict, apologised to the victim for what had happened and recognised her truthfulness and the impact of the offences on her.

The lawyer said O’Rourke has several health problems, his relationship has ended, he has no meaningful contact with his six children and lives alone. O’Rourke has stated that he himself was inappropriately handicapped by a teacher at the age of eight, the lawyer added.

As she read her victim impact statement, the woman turned to O’Rourke and said, “Isn’t it interesting that I was able to remember your name and you couldn’t show me the same dignity?”

She said she wanted him to know that he had “changed my world, my entire existence, and for the worse.” She said it was “unacceptable” that he had “abused and violated my child’s trust and also my body” and that he had intentionally used her for his “personal gratification” with “complete and utter disregard.”

She said O’Rourke would “never understand the feelings you made me feel and the insecurities and inadequacies you created in me.” She said his “deliberate treatment and abuse of me as a child” was partly what led her to want to escape her life and take an overdose of sleeping pills.

The woman said she was “just learning to let out my pain, hurt and anger through the gag you made me wear for so many years.” She had long repressed her feelings and “swallowed the past like a good girl” until she began to “slowly, painfully and regretfully” reconstruct what had happened.

The woman said what O’Rourke did to her and others was “inexcusable, but it was your decision.”

“What had to happen for you to accomplish all of this on so many levels? This disregard, this negligence, this constant cruelty towards me as a defenseless child, your refusal to admit what you did?” she asked.

“I don’t know what drove you to this violence,” she told him. “If you were abused, I am truly sorry. But if that was the case, and that is a big but, unlike me, you chose to continue the horrific cycle. You simply did not stop. You could have, but you did not. That was your decision, I had no choice. You took so much that was not yours, and nothing will ever give it back to you.”

O’Rourke had already been sentenced to 12 years in prison in January 1998 after pleading guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 29 offences involving 11 girls between 1976 and 1992. The charges included defilement, sexual assault and indecent touching.

In August 2000, he was sentenced to four years in prison on 19 charges. These involved six girls aged between 10 and 19, all of whom he trained. The indecent and sexual harassment took place on unknown dates between July 1970 and December 1992.

In January 2005, O’Rourke was sentenced to ten years in prison after admitting two counts of rape and two counts of sexual assault between 1975 and 1978. The sentence was backdated to March 13, 2000. He has not been in a Garda station since his release from prison in 2007, the court heard.