A woman has told former Irish swimming coach and convicted sex abuser Derry O'Rourke that he changed her entire existence for the worst by raping and sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager.
The now 48-year-old woman addressed O’Rourke directly during a sentencing hearing after he was found guilty of one count of rape and 11 counts of indecent assault between 1989 and 1990.
O’Rourke is now 78 and had pleaded not guilty to the charges, claiming he did not know the victim. However the court heard he now accepts the jury’s verdict.
The trial heard he groomed the woman when she was a 13-year-old girl, singling her out and training her for the school swim team.
He sexually assaulted her in a room off the pool, pretending he was "checking her muscles". He also raped her on one occasion, leaving her, she said, violated and in shock.
He previously served a total of nine years in jail, having pleaded guilty in four prosecutions to dozens of sexual assault charges against 19 other girls spanning the years between 1970 and 1992. He was released from prison in March 2007.
During this trial, the court heard O’Rourke raped the girl at a vulnerable time in her life. He had previously repeatedly sexually assaulted her on a weekly basis. She refused to return to swimming after the rape even though O'Rourke approached her father to try to get her to come back.
The court heard evidence that he would go through the female shower area when the girls were showering naked. He had denied doing this. The court also heard witnesses who remembered him singling out the victim and choosing her to train for the swim team, even though O'Rourke denied knowing her.
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After the rape the trial heard there was a serious deterioration in the girl's mental health and academic performance and she took an overdose in April 1991.
She first reported the rape and the assaults in 2021.
'You just didn't stop. You could have, but you didn’t. That was your choice. I had no choice'
In her victim impact statement, the woman turned and addressed O'Rourke directly. She said it was interesting how she could remember his name, but she said, he could not afford her the same dignity.
She told him he changed her world and her entire existence "for the worst".
He had not only violated a child's trust but her body as well and this, she said, was unacceptable. He showed complete and utter disregard for her and deliberately used her for his own personal gratification.
The woman said the warped, deliberate manipulation of any individual, and in this case, a vulnerable child, was abhorrent. She told O’Rourke he would never realise the shame he made her feel and the inadequacies he installed in her.
"You didn’t just put the spider cracks of insecurity in me - you made sure they stayed and grew," she said. She said she felt she was never good enough and was not able to believe in herself.
The woman told O'Rourke he made her create a mask for herself that kept her silent, that would not let her speak and moulded her life for years. A huge part of choosing not to have children, she said, was what he had done to her when she was a child.
"I never wanted to bring someone into this world to experience abuse, especially at the hands of someone they trusted, like I did," she said.
She said she did not want a child to suffer fear like she did, shame like she did and trauma like she still felt.
The woman said the deliberate grooming and abuse led in part to her wanting to escape her life and "go to sleep in the dark safety of forever". She said she wanted to feel nothing, be nothing and for it not to matter what he did to her.
Beauty and kindness 'tainted'
The woman said she had escaped Dublin as soon as she could to put as much distance as she could between herself and O'Rourke and had eventually moved to another continent.
She still chose not to live in Ireland. She said O'Rourke had tainted all the beauty and kindness here and broke her belief in safety, kindness and security.
She told O'Rourke he took her voice and left her with little room to breathe never mind speak. She said she was only just learning how to her pain, hurt and anger through the gag he made her wear. She had kept them pressed down for so long, it had impacted her health physically and mentally, she told the court.
She said she had swallowed the past "like a good girl" and it was so hard to slowly, regretfully and painfully piece together what had happened. She said it was also incredibly painful to have to repetitively regurgitate and retell the brutalising experience to friends, family, therapists, gardaí and the entire courtroom.
She said these had been the most unpleasant times of her life. The toll taken on her by reliving the memory and the years of investigation was inexcusable and she told O'Rourke it was all his fault.
She said she had finally found her voice. But she felt responsible for everyone having to be in court, to listen and decide what happened to her. She said this was a massive burden for her to carry but she wanted to hand it back to him.
The woman said she did not know what led O'Rourke down the path to commit such violence. She said she recognised many abusers were themselves abused, and if he was, she told O'Rourke she was genuinely sorry for him.
But, she said, he had chosen to perpetuate the horrific cycle. "You just didn’t stop," she said. "You could have, But you didn't. That was your choice. I had no choice."
She told O'Rourke he had taken so much it was not his to take. And nothing would ever give it back.
Prosecuting counsel Patricia McLaughlin said the DPP's view was that the offending fell into the higher category meriting a sentence of 15 years to life.
Defence counsel, Michael Bowman, said his client wanted to extend an apology for what happened. He said O'Rourke acknowledged the truthfulness of the testimony and could only apologise that a trial date was taken and proceeded with.
He said O'Rourke had multiple health complications, including heart issues, pancreatitis and diabetes.
He was a father of six children but had no meaningful engagement with his children. He said O'Rourke had been "inappropriately interfered with as an eight year old child" by a teacher. But Mr Bowman acknowledged that O'Rourke had chosen to perpetuate the cycle of abuse as his victim had pointed out.
Mr Bowman said O'Rourke had been treated in hospital before the trial due to a period of unconsciousness following a single car collision, the cause of which had still not been determined.
Judge Melanie Greally said she would impose sentence tomorrow.
