Former Olympic swimming coach George Gibney (77) has been arrested in the United States on foot of a Garda request to extradite him to Ireland, to face charges over the historical sexual abuse of multiple children.
Gardaí have been investigating a number of fresh allegations that Gibney sexually abused children in his care as a swimming coach several decades ago. A request was made by the Garda to the US State Department to extradite Gibney to Ireland.
Gardaí are seeking to have Gibney brought back to Ireland to face more than 50 charges related to alleged historical child sex abuse, connected to his time as a swimming coach.
US authorities informed Garda Headquarters that they have taken Gibney into custody on foot of the extradition request, according to Garda sources.
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It is expected Gibney will be brought before a US court where an initial hearing for his possible extradition to Ireland will take place, one Garda source said. It is understood the former coach was remanded in custody after a very preliminary court hearing, following his arrest in Florida, the source said.
Gardaí spent several months preparing the paperwork for the extradition request, following a renewed criminal investigation into allegations Gibney abused multiple children when he was a swimming coach in Ireland.
Gibney was a well-known coach at Trojan swimming club in Dublin during the 1980s and 1990s, before abuse revelations emerged publicly. Gibney previously faced criminal charges in 1993, appearing before Dún Laoghaire District Court charged with 27 counts of indecency against young swimmers and of having carnal knowledge of girls under the age of 15.
However, he successfully halted that prosecution by taking a judicial review, where his lawyers argued there was a delay in the offences coming to court and a lack of precision in defining specific alleged incidents.
The legal challenge ended up in the Supreme Court, which ruled in his favour. Gibney fled Ireland afterwards, spending time in Scotland before moving to the US. Now in his 70s, he has been living near Orlando, Florida, for several years.
A 2020 podcast documentary by BBC Sounds and Second Captains, entitled Where Is George Gibney?, re-examined the controversy and prompted more than a dozen new alleged victims of the swimming coach to come forward.
When confronted by the makers of the podcast in a suburb of Orlando where he lived, he refused to respond to questions about the sexual abuse allegations.
A number of the alleged abuse victims who came forward following the documentary made criminal complaints to An Garda Síochána, who at the time had already opened a fresh investigation into alleged historical abuse by Gibney.
Following that renewed investigation a file was submitted by gardaí to the Director of Public Prosecutions in 2023. The new case relates to different instances of alleged abuse to those Gibney was previously charged with in the 1990s.
Criminal charges were directed last year, though news of that development had not emerged until now. Gardaí were keen to maintain secrecy for fear of tipping off Gibney before the legal arrangements required for his extradition were in place.
The criminal investigation centred on allegations Gibney had committed dozens of sexual crimes against the victims now at the centre of the case and it is understood more than 50 charges are likely to be pursued.
Once the criminal charges had been approved late last year, the Garda began preparing the ground for Gibney’s extradition, which resulted in his arrest in Florida on Tuesday. He had been living there, with another man, in Altamonte Springs.
Garda sources told The Irish Times the detectives in Dublin had been in contact with their colleagues in Florida about the whereabouts of Gibney, with that contact having ramped up since the DPP approved criminal charges against him.
Once those charges were approved, gardaí were very keen to ensure they knew where Gibney was, and any changes in his living arrangements, in order that he could be located quickly and arrested for the purposes of extradition.
It is understood gardaí submitted the extradition request to US authorities late last year, at which point it became a matter for US officials to review and process the paperwork and then carry out the arrest.
Gardaí were informed that the former high-profile swimming coach had been taken into custody by US authorities on Tuesday.
