George Gibney, an Irish Olympic swimming coach paedophile, living in Florida, from the 1984 and 1988 Games, was apprehended this afternoon in Florida on over 50 counts of sexual abuse.
The prosecution commenced in 1993 when he was indicted on 27 counts of sexual abuse offences, including ‘indecency’ and ‘engaging in sexual relations with girls under the age of 15.’ The case was dropped because of the elapsed time since the alleged crimes, but in 1997, new allegations emerged, prompting a new inquiry.
George Gibney ran away to the United States in 1995 with the UK government’s blessings, when he also coached a USA Swimming age-group team in suburban Denver. In 2000, a Colorado police report raised concerns over Gibney’s involvement in a ‘paedophile ring’ that transported minors from his Catholic church parish to Peru. Journalist Irvin Muchnik initiated a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) inquiry into this report over a decade later, prompting FBI agents to travel to Peru for subsequent investigation.
In 2020, this case was re-examined due to a BBC podcast entitled Where is George Gibney. The podcast prompted 18 additional victims to present new information. This prompted the Gardaí (the Irish police) to submit a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions in 2023.
The Irish Times reports that late last year, the gardai submitted an extradition request to U.S. authorities. After receiving the request, U.S. officials had to review and process the paperwork before complying with the arrest, which they did today in Florida.
George Gibney will be detained in the U.S. until he appears in court, where he can either contest his extradition or accept it and return to Ireland and face charges.
The BBC podcast refers to this case as “one of the largest sexual abuse scandals in sports history”, along with the Larry Nassar case in USA gymnastics and the Barry Bernell case in UK football.
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