Irish Times: Minister of Justice to Discuss Legislator’s Appeal For Extradition of George Gibney

Sportswriter Johnny Watterson of the Irish Times, one of the key journalists who broke and kept alive the story of the Irish swimming sexual abuse scandals of the 1990s, is reporting that Frances Fitzgerald, the minister of justice and equality, will contact Nóirín O’Sullivan, commissioner of the Garda (national police force), “with a view to discussing the case of former Irish Olympic swimming coach George Gibney.”

See http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/minister-to-discuss-extradition-of-swim-coach-accused-of-abuse-1.2128205.

On Tuesday, an independent deputy (member of Parliament) rose in the legislature to call for reopening criminal abuse allegations against “a notorious coach.” The rules of the body forbade Maureen O’Sullivan from naming Gibney, but he was obviously the target, and O’Sullivan proceeded to participate that night in an extended panel discussion of Gibney’s history and flight to the U.S. on the TV3 network’s Tonight With Vincent Browne.

The Irish Times reported: “Ms O’Sullivan believes that there was ‘a litany of mistakes’ in the way the case was dealt with in the past and that some of the excuses that were made then would no longer be acceptable.”

Watterson also wrote:

“The case has also been picked up in the US by investigative reporter Irvin Muchnick.

He expects to hear back from the department of homeland security’s US citizenship and immigration services within the next two months regarding the details of the former coach’s visa and Green Card files….

More than 100 American swimming coaches have been jailed and/or banned for life from the sport in the past few years for offences against boys and girls. With new revelations numbers are still rising in what many people see as perhaps the biggest abuse scandal in the history of sport.”