George Gibney looked uninterested and unrepentant during a sentencing hearing, yesterday. 

The former swimming coach and convicted paedophile was found guilty of 39 counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted rape committed between 1971 and 1981. 

At the Central Criminal Court in Dublin, victims had the opportunity to tell the court about the impact his offending had had on them over the decades. 

“The judge described them as powerful victim impact statements,” reporter Emily Keegan told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“That's probably the best word that could be used for them; it was really harrowing what happened to these women and for them to get up and to relive this - not only throughout the trial, but again in victim impact statements.” 

Ms Keegan continued that one woman in particular was visibly upset when she sat down to give her victim impact statement. 

“Suddenly that just switched and it became very visible anger towards George Gibney,” she recounted. 

“She actually turned around in the dock and faced him throughout the entire time she was delivering this victim impact statement. 

“She was saying that the shame, the guilt and the embarrassment that she had felt is now all his. 

“She said that he may have tried to destroy her as a child, but he failed and the world is now going to know him as a convicted serial pedophile.” 

George Gibney. Image: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Throughout this, Gibney stared at the ground expressionless. 

The 78-year-old, who is now one of the country’s most notorious criminals, did not look in any way upset or remorseful. 

“He didn't look sad, he didn't look in any way impacted by what this woman was saying, which was impacting everybody else in the courtroom,” Ms Keegan said. 

“It was really something to see these women get up and be so brave and to kind of hold him to account as he is guilty of the crimes now.”

The court was informed that Gibney does not intend to appeal his convictions, which his lawyers argued should be considered a mitigating factor. 

Notably, he pleaded guilty to five counts before the start of this trial, which suggests “an element of him accepting some of what he had done”. 

“The woman that he pleaded guilty to [assaulting], in her statement yesterday was questioning why was he only pleading guilty to some of them? Why was he not accepting all that he had done?” Ms Keegan said. 

“This was, however, put forward as a submission from the defense as what could be considered a mitigating factor when it comes to handing down his sentence and to hopefully try and get him a shorter sentence than what the prosecution is hoping for. 

“There were other things that they asked the judge to consider; like the fact that he is 78, the fact that the trial came in under time and that he pleaded guilty to some of the offenses.”

Gibney was remanded in custody for sentencing on October 12th.

Main image: George Gibney. Picture by: INPHO / Billy Stickland.