Former swimming coach Derry O’Rourke convicted of raping teenager – The Irish Times

Former Irish swimming coach Derry O’Rourke is due to be sentenced on Tuesday for the rape and sexual assault of a teenager 35 years ago.

Derry O’Rourke (78) of Virginia Road, Cavan, had pleaded not guilty before the Central Criminal Court to one count of rape and 15 counts of indecent assault during meetings between October 1989 and June 1990.

The complainant was between 13 and 14 years old at the time.

During the trial, the jury was instructed by Judge Melanie Greally to acquit O’Rourke of four of these charges. The jury now had to consider one count of rape and 11 counts of sexual assault.

The jury announced its verdict on July 18 after five hours and 27 minutes of deliberation.

O’Rourke did not respond to the announcement of the twelve guilty verdicts.

O’Rourke is a convicted rapist. He was 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, O’Rourke was sentenced to four years in prison on 19 counts involving six girls. The sexual assaults and sexual battery occurred on unknown dates between July 1970 and December 1992. One of the offenses involved oral sex. The girls were between the ages of 10 and 19 and were all trained by him.

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. This sentence was retroactively dated to March 13, 2000.