Former Irish Olympic coach Derry O’Rourke found guilty of rape and sexual assault

Derry O’Rourkea former Irish Olympic swimming coach, was found guilty of raping and sexually abusing a teenage girl more than thirty years ago.

O’Rourke, 78, was already a convicted rape man before this trial; he had been sentenced to prison terms in 1998, 2000 and 2005.

In this case, O’Rourke had pleaded not guilty before the Central Criminal Court in Dublin to one count of rape and 15 counts of sexual assault between October 1989 and June 1990. The plaintiff was between 13 and 14 years old at the time, according to The Irish period.

After the trial judge Melanie Greally instructed the jury to acquit O’Rourke of four counts, but left the jury to try one count of rape and 11 counts of indecent contact against O’Rourke.

After nearly five and a half hours of deliberation on the fifth day of the trial, the jury returned a guilty verdict. O’Rourke did not react when the verdict was announced. The Irish period reported.

Greally remanded O’Rourke in custody and was due to be sentenced on July 30.

Addressing the jury, Judge Greally said: “I realise this was a difficult case and you gave 100 per cent. That was evident in the questions you asked. I sincerely thank you and hope that this experience was of value to you.”

At the start of the trial, the victim, now 48, told the prosecutor Patricia McLoughlin SC that O’Rourke started working as her sports coach when she was about 13 years old, while she was still a high school student.

She described herself as weighing “63-70 pounds, I was stunted, my bra wasn’t even a size 32 AA, I was very thin, had short hair and looked like a child.”

She said O’Rourke suggested he do daily “muscle checks” to help her improve, during which he would stand behind her and put “one hand on her right breast and the other on her left breast” and move “his hands up and down.”

The “muscle checks” escalated before O’Rourke allegedly raped her.

O’Rourke was sentenced to 12 years in prison in January 1998 after pleading guilty to 29 crimes involving 11 girls between 1976 and 1992. The charges included defilement, sexual battery and indecent touching.

In August 2000, he was sentenced to four years in prison. He was accused of 19 crimes – sexual harassment and sexual assault – involving six girls on unknown dates between July 1970 and December 1992. One of the crimes involved oral sex. The girls were between 10 and 19 years old and were trained by him, so The Irish period.

O’Rourke was sentenced to ten years in prison in January 2005 after pleading guilty to two counts of rape and two counts of indecent assault between 1975 and 1978. The sentence was backdated to March 2000.

He was released early from prison in 2007.