A woman who was raped and sexually assaulted by former international swimming coaching Derry O’Rourke has said his “brutalisation” of her took so much that was not his to take and “nothing will ever get it back”.
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 a Leinster school the girl attended on dates between October 1989 and June 1990. The complainant was between 13 and 14 years old at the time.
He was convicted of one count of rape and 11 charges of sexual assault which involved touching the child’s breast and digitally penetrating her vagina. The jury returned the unanimous verdict following a six-day trial. Earlier in the trial, four of the indecent assault charges were removed from the indictment.
The court heard that O’Rourke singled the girl out as a potential member of his swim team at the school and set up an individual training schedule for her. He abused her in a room off the pool, known as the float room, on the pretext of carrying out muscle checks.
Following the rape, the teenager never returned to swimming, despite having previously trained five times a week.
Victim's statement
At the sentence hearing on Tuesday, the now 48-year-old woman turned to look at O’Rourke as she took the stand to deliver her victim impact statement.
“Derry – or as you said you prefer to be known as – Diarmuid – isn’t it interesting how I can remember your name, but you couldn’t afford me the same dignity,” she began.
The woman was referring to the fact that O’Rourke told gardaí on arrest that he had no recollection of the then 14-year-old school girl. He said she was never on his swim team and told officers that if her allegations were true, he would admit it.
She described O’Rourke’s crimes as “a brutalisation” of her and said the re-telling of the abuse of her “continues to be incredibly painful”.
“You made me create a mask for myself that kept me silent and one that would not let me speak, one that moulded my life,” the woman continued.
“You changed my world, my entire existence. For you to violate and abuse not only a child’s trust but their body too is unacceptable. With complete and utter disregard, you deliberately used me for your own personal gratification,” the woman continued.
She described O’Rourke’s assault as “a warped deliberate manipulation of a child”.
She spoke of the “disregard, wanton neglect and cruelty” O’Rourke displayed towards her and his “absolute inability to admit what you did”.
“I do not know what led you down the path to cause such violence. It is recognised that many abusers are themselves abused and if you were, I am genuinely sorry for you. But, and it is a big but, if you were, unlike me, you chose to perpetuate the vicious cycle.”
“You didn’t stop. You could have but you did not. That was your choice. I had no choice. You took so much that was not yours to take and nothing will ever get it back,” the woman concluded her statement.
Previous offences
This woman’s case is the only case that O’Rourke has contested. His previous convictions, which first involved a jail term in 1998, all stemmed from guilty pleas in relation to over 19 children.
The offences dates range from 1970 to 1992 and O’Rourke was ultimately released from prison in March 2007.
He first received a 12-year jail term in 1998 relating to 29 charges of sexual assault, indecent assault and unlawful carnal knowledge against 11 children between 1976 and 1992.
From the same investigation he subsequently pleaded guilty to 19 charges of indecent assault of six further children between 1970 and 1992 and was sentenced to a concurrent term of four years.
In 2005, O’Rourke was jailed for ten years for rape and indecent assault dating back to 1975 but it could not be confirmed how many victims this involved. This sentence was backdated to March 13, 2000.
Finally in 2008, additional complaints of indecent assault dating back to 1979 led to a three-year suspended sentence.
Ms Justice Melanie Greally remanded O’Rourke in continuing custody until Wednesday for sentencing.
Patricia McLaughlin SC, prosecuting, told the court that the Director of Public Prosecutions submitted that the case warrants a headline sentence of between 15 years and life imprisonment, principally due to the nature of the offending and O’Rourke’s criminal record.
Michael Bowman SC, defending, said O’Rourke now accepts the verdict of the jury and apologises for the hurt he has caused the woman.
Counsel accepted there was “a multiplicity of aggravating features” including the age the girl was at the time and the “breach of trust”.
Mr Bowman acknowledged the impact the abuse had on the woman as stated in her victim impact statement which he described as “cogent and dignified”.
He asked the court to acknowledge that O’Rourke’s current acceptance of the verdicts “bring some closure and in a public forum acknowledges the truthfulness” of the woman’s testimony, but Mr Bowman acknowledged that the trial process added to the woman’s trauma.
He said O’Rourke was married and has six children but is no longer in contact with them. He has a large array of health complications including chronic heart disease, acute pancreatitis and diabetes.
Mr Bowman said his client accepts “the enormity of the harm done at a critical stage of the girl’s development” and accepted that the abuse was carried out on a child by a person she trusted in an environment that her abuser had control over.
School swimming pool
Sergeant Amy Kelly told Ms McLaughlin that the woman attended a school that had a swimming pool on site which was used for PE, the swimming club and for the use of all pupils in what was termed as “free swims”.
O’Rourke was the swimming coach and supervised the free swims. Sgt Kelly confirmed that he was a renowned coach, having coached internationally and at Olympic level.
In her second year in school, the girl was singled out during the free swims and O’Rourke invited her to train with the swim team. Witnesses told the jury in the trial that they recalled this happening at the time.
In a later interview with gardaí, O’Rourke denied any knowledge of the girl and denied that she ever swam with the team. He confirmed that he recruited swimmers for the school team from those free swims and would recruit them from 13 years old.
Sgt Kelly said O’Rourke decided the girl was “very far behind the rest” and isolated her into a lane of her own and put her on her own training schedule. She never actually swam for the school despite training for a year
Sgt Kelly said O’Rourke would come into the showers while the girl was showering. During the trial, various witnesses gave evidence that there was “a culture at the school whereby the girls would shower naked”.
The jury were shown maps during the trial that showed that there was another route O’Rourke could take to the pool without going through the shower area.
Sgt Kelly said O’Rourke began bringing the teenager into a room off the pool known as the float room “on the pretext of carrying out muscle checks” and he would touch both of her breasts. She said this occurred on a weekly basis for some months.
These tests progressed and O’Rourke said he needed to do a “bit more” which led to an escalation of sexual assault into digital penetration.
Sgt Kelly said the woman thought it was “legitimate” because he was the coach and he was in a position of authority. He was promising her she could join the team and become a great swimmer.
The woman was not able to tell the jury how many times she was sexually assaulted in this manner but said it happened several times until the school year ended in June 1990.
In September 1990 when she returned to school, O’Rourke took the woman into the boiler room and raped her.
During the trial, the woman gave a detailed account of the rape including the smell of the gym mats in the boiler room and the sounds of the machinery for the pool.
She described how O’Rourke made her lay on the floor naked on the pretext of muscle checks before he laid down on top of her. She remembered him being very heavy on top of her and “it was forceful”.
She recalled him groaning and saying “good girl” and “be quiet”.
The court heard that the teenager didn’t return to swimming at all after the rape, despite having trained fives times a week before that.
She later told gardaí she felt “awful, violated” and that “a trust had been broken”.
O’Rourke approached her father to try and get her back into swimming but the girl “stuck to her guns”, Sgt Kelly confirmed.
Her father gave evidence during the trial of this meeting with O’Rourke and how the man told him his daughter had “potential as a swimmer”.
The woman reported the abuse to gardaí in 2021. She said at the time of the rape, she felt “complicit”.
O’Rourke was arrested in August 2022. He denied the offences and said if these things had happened, he would have agreed they had.
