Reprint of Times of London Article: ‘TD Demands Action From U.S. on George Gibney’

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

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

TD demands action from US on Gibney

By Aaron Rogan

December 26 2017

A TD has said that the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration could add to political pressure for the US to deport George Gibney, the former Olympic swimming coach accused of raping children.

Maureen O’Sullivan, an independent Dublin Central TD, said she would write to Dianne Feinstein, a US senator, and Jackie Speier, a congresswoman, to find out why Mr Gibney was allowed to stay in the US in 2010, despite being denied citizenship and allegedly trying to hide from immigration officials the 27 charges against him in Ireland.

Ms O’Sullivan said that the American political climate after President Trump’s attempts to stem immigration could make it an “opportune” time.

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

Ms O’Sullivan has raised the issue in the Dáil with Simon Coveney, who said on December 14 that the government would act if possible on new information that was to be released on Mr Gibney’s citizenship applications.

Ms O’Sullivan said that she had engaged with the Department of Justice and gardaí but had been told that unless new evidence was submitted about alleged crimes in Ireland, there was little that could be done to have Mr Gibney returned.

“The next thing to do is to write to American politicians who have shown an interest and see if something can be done from the American side,” Ms O’Sullivan said. “I wrote two years ago to every woman in congress and the senate but didn’t get much response. Hopefully it will get a better response this time. It’s sad that Ireland can’t do more, but there should be huge questions in America about why someone with 27 charges against them was allowed to stay in the country without citizenship.”

She also said that she would ask investigators in Tampa, Florida to share with gardaí any details they have about an alleged rape in a hotel room in 1991.

Ms O’Sullivan has acted as a go-between gardaí and an alleged victim of Mr Gibney’s since she came forward in 2015. The Sunday Times reported that the former swimmer told gardaí that a high-ranking official in the sport took her to England for an abortion after the alleged incident during a training camp in Florida. She said the official obtained plane tickets and accompanied her to England. She believes she was taken to an abortion clinic in London and remembers the official giving her pills that made her groggy.

Nóirín O’Sullivan ordered a review of the case, but it is understood that the alleged victim has not been in a good enough mental state to provide details.