Investigative journalist Irvin Muchnick explained on Wednesday's OTB AM why he believes that the links between George Gibney and a church group mission to Peru are of interest to Federal investigators in the US and could play a role in his extradition if he is forced to return to Ireland.
The former-Irish swimming coach was accused of 27 counts of indecent assault and unlawful carnal knowledge though escaped conviction following a Supreme Court ruling in 1993.
Shortly thereafter, George Gibney departed Ireland for Scotland, before relocating once more to America where he still lives to this day.
Muchnick, who has spent years uncovering details surrounding Gibney and his case, spoke to OTB AM alongside TD Maureen O'Sullivan, who has raised the Gibney case in the Dail and has written to US politicians about George Gibney.
“There’s always old Gibney business and new Gibney business. As we press in on this decade-long fight to get justice for his victims and accountability… I’ve always been focused on what new things we can find that are going to motivate the American government to do its part and help coordinate information with the Irish government and get Gibney extradited back for trial,” Irvin Muchnick told Off The Ball.
The second edition of his eBook, The George Gibney Chronicles reports, “New information about actual potentially nefarious activities that Gibney was involved in, in the United States in the late-1990s, when he was the head of a church group medical mission to Peru.
Irvin stated, "I have new reporting that I believe, according to my government sources, federal agents are interested in what happened in Peru with George Gibney."
He added that he believes that the information, “Raises new substantive issues that could assist this two-continent campaign to bring a good resolution to the Gibney matter.”
Peru trip
Muchnick outlines the implications of the Peru links, which he uncovered on a CV for George Gibney which he obtained.
He said the information is, "problematic from both ends, it’s problematic because he may have brought kids from his church in the Denver area with him on foreign travels. As we know from the Murphy report, he had a very authoritarian and a very abusive system with the swimming groups that he took abroad.
“It’s also problematic because he was serving a vulnerable population of children in Peru. We see also that he did other things, volunteered for a children's' mental health program in Denver.
"He worked on the board of a state college program for at-risk youths. We see this pattern of Gibney compulsively, opportunistically, getting into positions of authority where we could get close to young people who were ill-equipped to defend against his sexual predation."
Road to Extradition
Maureen O'Sullivan told OTB AM that the most-likely way that he could be extradited would be through new information coming to light in Ireland if fresh claims were made against Gibney.
However, she added that she is aware that it could be difficult for anyone with information to come forward given the traumatic nature of the crimes the coach was accused of.
Her message to anyone with information was that the Gardaí have a special unit to deal with cases like this in a compassionate and professional manner.
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