Reprint of Sunday Times of London Article: “Swimmer ‘Was to Expose George Gibney'”

Below is the full text of the article in London’s Sunday Times. It is reprinted with permission. © Times Newspapers Limited 2017

Writer Justine McCarthy based the story, in part, on some of the new documents released to Concussion Inc. last Thursday as part of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals settlement of Muchnick v. Department of Homeland Security. We will be gradually uploading and commenting on this new material.

Chronological links to our series, which began January 27, 2015, under the headline “Why Is George Gibney – No. 1 At-Large Pedophile in Global Sports – Living in Florida? And Who Sponsored His Green Card?”: https://concussioninc.net/?p=10942

Swimmer ‘was to expose Gibney’

By Justine McCarthy

December 17 2017

New information released in America shows that the alleged paedophile swimming coach George Gibney obtained a US visa after becoming aware that his star swimmer, Gary O’Toole, was about to expose his crimes.

Gibney’s immigration file, released by the Department of Homeland Security to California-based journalist Irvin Muchnick, shows Ireland’s former national coach was issued a four-month US visa in 1992.

At the time his application was being processed at the American embassy in Dublin, Gibney appeared on RTE’s television coverage of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and trenchantly criticised O’Toole’s performance, saying he should not have been selected to represent Ireland.

In February 1991, O’Toole, a European silver medallist, had told Gibney he was quitting the coach’s elite swimmers’ team. When Gibney asked why, O’Toole replied: “I think you know why.”

Chalkie White, a champion swimmer who says Gibney sexually abused him when he was 11, confronted the coach about the abuse in December 1990. According to White, Gibney said that he would resign as national coach following the World Aquatic Championships in Australia the next month.

On the flight to Perth for the 1991 games, White told O’Toole about the abuse and the latter began contacting other swimmers whom Gibney had trained, either as national coach or at Trojan swimming club in Blackrock, Co Dublin, which Gibney founded. Several said Gibney had abused them too.

A garda investigation commenced in December 1992 and Gibney was charged on April 2, 1993, initially with the unlawful carnal knowledge and indecent assault of seven underage swimmers. The charges were increased later to 27 counts of rape and assault.

The charges were dropped when the High Court ruled on July 21, 1994, that Gibney could not adequately defend himself because some of the complaints dated back to the early 1970s. The swim coach had already left Ireland.

The Homeland Security file also contains a character reference for Gibney, stating that he had no criminal convictions. It is stamped “Garda Siochana headquarters, Phoenix Park” and dated January 20, 1992.

Simon Coveney, the tanaiste, told the Dail on Thursday, before the documents were released in America, that new information about the case was expected to enter the public domain. He said the state would “do all it can to try to bring individuals to justice who have been accused of sexual abuse”.