A woman who was abused as a child by former Irish Olympic swimming coach, Derry O’Rourke, has told him in court that he changed her world for the worst.
The 78-year-old, of Virginia Road, Co Cavan, will be sentenced tomorrow for raping her over thirty-five years ago. Derry O’Rourke was found guilty of one charge of rape and eleven charges of indecent assault at a time when the woman was aged between 13 and 14. The abuse began after he invited her to join his swim team.
After he raped her sometime in September 1990, she said she was shocked, felt violated, that the trust had been broken; and she refused to go back to the pool. In court today, she told him he had used her for his own personal gratification. She described his warped, deliberate, manipulation of a child as abhorrent.
She said she had been left with a massive burden to carry all these years but that she wanted to now hand that burden back to him, because it’s all his fault. O’Rourke, who has multiple previous convictions for child abuse, will be sentenced tomorrow.
