A 48-YEAR-OLD former Irish Olympic swimming coach was found guilty of multiple counts of indecent assault against young boys yesterday.
Ger Doyle, from Wexford town, was found guilty of 34 charges of indecent assault and one charge of sexual assault at Wexford Circuit Criminal Court.
Doyle was acting national coach at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and involved in training many successful Irish swimmers.
He was also manager of New Ross swimming pool for over two decades, where the incidents occurred between January 1981 and December 1993.
During the six-day trial, it was alleged that Doyle had assaulted five boys aged between 10 and 15 over those years, some of whom he was involved in coaching.
The court heard gardaí in Co Wexford first became aware of the allegations in 2005.
The first complainant before the court said he was taken by Doyle to a downstairs boiler room at the pool after being caught stealing money from the changing room, some time during 1987 or 1988. There the complainant had his pants pulled down and bottom smacked by the defendant.
The second witness told the court he was 10 or 11 years old when the alleged abuse happened in the mid-1980s. He said he was locked into an office with the defendant and then fondled.
The final three complainants all said they were indecently assaulted and one complained that the defendant had groped his genitals.
One told how Doyle had asked him to masturbate and if he couldn’t do it himself, the defendant would help him. The complainant was also asked to touch Doyle.
He also told the court that he was slapped on the bottom, and Doyle would always kiss him on the face “as if he was doing you a favour.”
This complainant said he came forward over 15 years after the alleged incidents took place because he had children of his own and did not want them going to the place where the incidents occurred where the defendant could do this to them.
Doyle said his reaction when confronted by the Garda about the charges was one of complete and utter shock. “I would have preferred to have died rather than sit and listen to the allegations put against me . . . I never laid a finger on any child,” he said.
In his closing statement on Tuesday, Roderick O’Hanlon, prosecuting, said the first two witnesses had given independent testimony outlining Doyle’s exploitative nature. The likelihood, he said, of somebody finding themselves falsely accused by different people, on various occasions and independently of each other, was remote.
Mr O’Hanlon said a suggestion, by the defence, that the men had given testimony with a view to taking a separate civil action for financial gain was not supported by a shred of evidence.
Doyle’s barrister John O’Kelly said the jury must consider that his client was being subjected to a witch-hunt.
The jury of seven men and five women returned from their deliberations with a unanimous verdict on 33 of the charges. A majority verdict was delivered in two other charges.
Doyle stood with his head bowed and hands clasped as he listened to the verdict, while members of the victims’ families clapped and hugged one another.
Mr O’Hanlon applied for Doyle to be put on the Sex Offenders’ Register. Judge Alice Doyle refused an application for bail, and adjourned the case until January 28th for sentencing. After the verdict was read out, Doyle said: “I am not guilty of these charges.”