Sonya McLean and Claire Henry
Former Irish international swimming coach Derry O’Rourke has been convicted of raping and sexually assaulting a teenage girl 35 years ago.
Derry O’Rourke (78), of Virgina Road, Co Cavan, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to one count of rape and 15 counts of indecent assault in the school on dates between October 1989 and June 1990.
The complainant was between 13 and 14 at the time of the offences.
During the trial, the jury was directed by the trial judge to acquit O’Rourke of four of those charges, leaving the jury to consider one offence of rape and 11 charges of indecent assault.
The jury returned its verdict after deliberating for five hours and 27 minutes on the fifth day of the trial.
Ms Justice Melanie Greally remanded O’Rourke in custody for sentencing on July 30th.
Mr Michael Bowman SC, defending, told the court that his client suffers from poor health and recently had a hospital stay, but he said he could see no reason to delay sentencing.
O’Rourke made no reaction as the 12 guilty verdicts were delivered.
O’Rourke is a convicted rapist, having been jailed for 12 years in January 1998 after he pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 29 offences involving 11 girls regarding offences committed on dates between 1976 and 1992. The charges involved defilement, sexual assault and indecent assault.
In August 2000, O’Rourke was sentenced to four years in prison on 19 charges involving six girls. The indecent and sexual assaults took place on dates unknown between July 1970 and December 1992.
One of the offences involved oral sex and the girls were aged between 10 and 19, and were all being coached by him.
O’Rourke was jailed for 10 years in January 2005 after he pleaded guilty to two charges of rape and two counts of indecent assault on dates from 1975 to 1978 in relation to the victim. This sentence was backdated to March 13th, 2000.
Coach
Earlier in the trial, the now 48-year-old woman told Patricia McLoughlin SC, prosecuting, that O’Rourke had begun as her sports coach while she was a secondary school student. The woman described being “thrilled that someone had noticed her”.
The complaint was approximately 13 at the time, and described herself as being about “four and a half to five stone in weight”.
“I was underdeveloped, my bra was not even 30 AA. I was very skinny, with short hair, and I looked like a child,” she told the trial.
The jury heard the complainant trained almost daily, and O’Rourke suggested that he carry out “muscle checks” to help her improve.
The woman said she was brought into a room, and O’Rourke would stand behind her and instruct her to put her hands above her head. She then described him “putting one hand on her right breast and the other on her left breast and moving his hands up and down”. She estimated this would last about five minutes.
During the “muscle check”, O’Rourke told the complainant that she was “a good girl” and said: “I needed to work harder.” When asked if she had told anybody about this alleged continuous behaviour, she said: “No, because I thought it was legitimate.”
The complainant told Ms McLaughlin, prosecuting, that the “muscle checks” progressed and that O’Rourke would start by touching her breast and told her he needed to do additional tests. She then said he digitally penetrated her.
Ms McLaughlin asked the woman if O’Rourke said anything to her while this was happening, to which she replied he would say, “Good girl”, “just be quiet”, and “we just need to get this done”.
The woman said she had no contact with O’Rourke over that year's summer holidays, but resumed training again in September.
On one occasion, when she resumed training, the coach took her to the same room where the alleged indecent assault took place and is alleged to have raped her.
The jury heard that after this incident, the girl did not tell her parents but told them she would no longer participate in the sport. She described being “in a state of shock” and feeling “awful”, “violated” and said “the trust had been broken”.
Michael Bowman SC, defending, put it to the woman during cross-examination that his client had no recollection of her in the school or being involved in the team, which the woman did not accept.
Counsel further suggested that the room in which the rape took place was so small that there was not enough room for one person to lie down, not to mind two, which the complainant also did not accept.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at drcc.ie/services/helpline/ or visit Rape Crisis Help.
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