1. It Happened in the Summer

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Go to Vivint.com or call 1-855-4-VIVINT. Live intelligently. This podcast refers to child sexual abuse and contains interviews that some listeners may find upsetting as well as some occasional strong language. Episode 1. It happened in the summer.

I don't know how far those sounds away from here are from here, but you can hear the police helicopters, and then you can hear the police sirens quite a bit around here at this time, can't you? Yeah. I'm outside the house of a man who vanished 25 years ago. At least I think I am.

We haven't got a proper look, but to me this looks like a nice neighbourhood. Yeah. It's 6am, it's dark and it's completely still. It's hard though, isn't it? You have to see it in the proper daylight. We're about 100 metres away. from where we think a man, who I've been investigating for over two years, now lives. But we're not sure. Do you think there's any indicators that he could know that we're outside? No. His neighbours now know him as John, but that's not his real name.

We've been here now for over two hours. We're jumpy. This is this same car. What? This is this really slow woman in the Arras. Is it? Yeah. And so far... No sign of life from the house. Then suddenly, the garage door rises. You can see a kitchen door opening. We need to see if there's one or two people in that car. No, only two. Two. OK, I'm going to follow him. Yeah?

We're looking for a face that I've seen on TV chat shows, that I've seen in sports studios and on dozens of newspaper clippings from the 80s and the 90s. When his name is brought up in Ireland today, there's a question that always follows. It's where is he now? Okay, if he's going through the lights, I'm going through the lights. It's still impossible for us to tell if either of the men in the car are him.

And for more than 90 minutes, we follow them from junction to junction, on and off highways, always trying to stay two cars back. Ah, he's gone on the red. Oh, come on. Okay, come on. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go, Jeep. Come on. Hey, see him there. Yeah, yeah. You got him still? Yeah, got him. Eventually, they pull off the road and into the car park of a shopping complex. Ah, they're going to the shop. Is this car there? Public? Yeah.

The car we've been following is now parked up, but it's empty. But through the front windscreen, I can see something that rings a bell from some old photos. Rosary beads hang in the rear view mirror. The two men had gone into the store, so I followed. As I walked in, the men I'd been following were right there in front of me. I looked at their faces and they walked straight past me. They were oblivious. That's 100% George Gibney. Yeah, that's absolutely him.

of the New York Times in a couple of minutes about what's being dubbed the largest sexual abuse scandal in sporting history. My name is Mark Horgan and I'm a producer with a sports podcast in Ireland called Second Captains. So back in 2018, we were reporting on two major worldwide stories of abuse of children in sport. I think you would have heard about them both. Today, we broke the silence and we took back our voice. In the UK.

Barry Bunnell was sentenced to 30 years for sexually abusing young footballers over many decades. Footballers like Mickey Fallon here. We are no longer afraid of you, Barry Bunnell. You are nothing to us at all. And in the United States, US gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years for the sexual abuse of young athletes like Ali Raisman. Larry.

You do realize now that we, this group of women you so heartlessly abused over such a long period of time, are now a force and you are nothing. As Ali and Mickey face down their abusers. I was reminded of a case closer to home. A case where the perpetrator had actually coached one of our own presenters, Ken Early. He was a strange kind of guy. He was one of these quite calm-seeming people, you know.

Did he exude this kind of power or authority? Well, he did, but a lot of it is by reputation. You know what I mean? He's not going around telling you I'm powerful. It's just you know this is the guy who has the power. Well, you already know. Like, this is George Gibney. He's the top coach. coaches, the national team, and he's the top man. It was a case that we'd forgotten about. Just imagine an international scandal like Nasser or Benel, where the accused never even stood trial.

where the judicial system failed the survivors and the well-connected celebrity coach just disappeared. For us to understand the case of George Gibney and the path he took, we have to go right back to the beginning. Are you ready? Hmm? Let's give this a play here. Um, this man down here, this is Gary. Is it Gary O'Toole? Yes. Yes, I hope I will. You hearing it okay? Yeah, perfect. Okay.

When did you start swimming Gary? Well, I started training when I was about six. What did you know? I'm nine now. Oh, you're old now. What big competition are you going to take part in this year? I'm sitting on a couch playing Gary O'Toole old videos of himself as a child prodigy. He hasn't seen them since their first broadcast in the 70s. Yeah, it's a bit embarrassing. He was a phenomenon.

and the cameras return poolside again and again. Gary O'Toole represents Ireland's greatest hope in swimming. Gary, can I have a word with you? Tell me, how long have you been training here? Old grainy pictures of him on the way to training or going to school with his big oversized parka jacket and straight blonde hair. Do you come here at 5.30 or 6 o'clock in the morning? Yes. You don't get sleepy during the day? No. No?

Oh, that's the schoolyard. Yeah, that's my two younger brothers. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah, they must have filled us going to school. This is your first competition abroad, apart from the British Championships. Yes. And how did you feel about that when you were in the races? I don't remember this interview. Well, I knew that I had such a high level of competition there.

I had a chance to do a good time, so I had to make the most of the competition. I was now at the age of nine being looked upon as... a potential Olympian. They were right. Gary O'Toole would go to the Olympics. He'd become the country's greatest ever swimmer. He was that good. Do you mind having to spend all that time swimming? No, I don't mind it at all because weekends are always free for other stuff that you want to do. Every time you heard Gary...

Someone else is never too far away. Behind him in every shot, every interview, every soundbite, there was always someone else there. This time his trainer, George Gibney, watched another exceptional performance. Oh, he did exceptionally well. In fact, if you rank him on his 200-meter swim, he now ranks at number one in Britain or Ireland. That's how I recall him. Certainly, from the...

and effort that he's put in up to now, he's been doing very, very exceptionally well, in fact. It was very much a professional relationship then, very much so, and I knew what I wanted out of it, and I wanted to go to the Olympic Games. As Gary fulfilled his promise and became a sporting star, his longtime coach also became something of a media personality.

Glance around our audience tonight. You see exactly what the show is But we do have one of the best swimmers in the world with this is actually the fourth best in the world at the 200 meters breaststroke He's the second best in Europe and he's the best in Ireland. Would you therefore please welcome Gary O'Toole and his teacher, George Gibney. Thank you very much.

you are as i said there the fourth best in the world with the 200 meters breaststroke the second best in europe the best in ireland what i'd love to know is is there any romance in your life at all is there any time for it There's loads of time. I make time for that kind of thing. There's a lot of this priorities, right. Would you go to bed early? Vote myself. So this is probably late 89 or early 90. I'm not sure when it was.

But at this stage now, I was beginning to become a little bit more independent. He has started with me when he was about 9 or 10 years of age and went through good... high points and low points in his career and stuck it out. But his commitment to the game and to the sport... He's quite convincing when you watch this video in isolation, you know. He just seems like a man who's committed to sport.

And that's what's so scary about this. Gary, how do you rate George as a teacher? What are his strong points in your view? I have real admiration for him, particularly because when I go down training in the morning, I'm not Gary O'Toole to a certain...

Extend time one of the individuals and he doesn't treat anybody anybody anyway differently to anybody else. He's to be admired for for the way he approaches his swimmers and for the way he approaches his job and he's married with wife and kids whatever about me getting up at 4.40 in the morning when you have to leave the wife and go down swimming and all this and he's we're allowed to take a morning off but if the coach is

there the pool isn't open so he's never allowed to take a morning off so I think because of that I have an awful lot of admiration for him There was nothing about that man that was real. Everything else was just a pure act that he was putting on. The greatest illusion that was perpetrated in sport ever. That's the man that he is. Everything else is an act. Every single day he was living life as an illusion. You're not going to leave your Irish babies, are you? Well, certainly.

I have got the offers. They've been very attractive. But I really believe that we can do it with Irish swimmers here can make medals in Barcelona. And I want to stay here to make sure that that happens. Well, let's hope. Let's hope you do it. So this is all occurring about a year before the World Championships. So it all came crashing down soon after this.

Tomorrow we take off with a team of five sewers, where in fact we meet up with the United States Olympic swimming team to train with them over the next two weeks. In 1991, pretty much at the height of their celebrity, Gary and George flew to the World Championships in Perth, Australia.

And you'll be aiming for even better things. I find that I cope with the pressure fairly well, and it's something that I exist on, you know. If I don't have the pressure on me, I won't perform that well at all. I feel my preparation's going very well. Well, Gary will certainly wish you well. George, a last word from you. I'm expecting great things from the five people who are going. Great things. How great. I'm quite sure they will excel themselves and are on their way to 92 already.

The flight to Perth takes 20 hours and 25 minutes. Lots of time to think. Lots of time to talk. Everything. The disappearance, the allegations, the court cases, the rumours, the scandal, the ruination. Everything began on a plane journey to Australia. So on the flight with me, heading... to Perth for the World Championships was a small Irish team and there was George Gibney who was the head coach and Chalky White who was the assistant coach Chalky himself was a swimmer of renown

very good when he was a young underage swimmer. And it made me think about people that I swam with that had been... Very good, like Chalky, as an underage age group swimmer. And they've just fallen by the wayside. There was one girl in particular that I used to swim with and who I was particularly friendly with and fond of. I was 12. We used to train together all the time. One year when I went to California to train for almost two months and on this occasion did not go with George Gibney.

And this girl who was at home used to write letters, and I'd write letters back to her. She would write, you know, every four days or so, and I'd write back. But then when I came back... to Ireland after all this time, everything had changed and she just didn't speak to me and went out of her way to kind of stay away from me. which was upsetting to me at the time. You're 12, going on 13, and someone who you thought was your friend is now no longer your friend.

And I remember one particular morning, we just happened to find ourselves on the pool deck, just gathering our clothes at the same time. And there was no one else present, no one else on the pool. And she paused in front of me and I just looked at her and there was a, I won't say a moment of silence, but there was about... 15 seconds which felt like a lifetime to you know a teenager when she just looked at me and then we just went our separate ways and nothing was ever said

It was strange. And that stuck in my mind. And on the flight from Singapore to Perth, I couldn't sleep and it was an empty, relatively empty flight. At that point then, we were well into the flight. I remember the lights were off. I was sitting. two seats over from Chalky. And he turned to me and he said, can I talk to you? I just kind of went up and said, hey, I'm going to be the assistant coach to the team. Do you know, how do you get on with George? And I said, fine.

Why are you asking? I go, no, no, I just want to understand. And I said, well, you know, have you ever, has he ever just done anything to you that you never really liked or anything like that? And he used kind of... Very vague language. Has he ever been difficult or...? Yeah, have you ever... Has he ever just done anything to you that you never really liked or anything like that?

No, not really, you know, but what are you getting at? And then I think he said, has he ever been abusive? And I said, no, he can be difficult at times, you know, but no, he's never... He's never been, you know, what I would call abusive. I go, well, did he ever do anything to you that, you know, did he ever go any further than just normal coach-swimmer relationship?

And I said, no, no. And then I think he said, no, you're not understanding me. Has he ever sexually abused you? I said, no. Why are you asking me that question?

Hey, Chucky. No, I'm right here. I'm at the corner. I'm at the... I'm just pulled in around the corner there at the crossroads. Great. See you in a sec. Bye. I'm in Miami, Florida, where Chalky now lives to hear his story. Chalky, much like Gary, was a child prodigy. At age 11, he was the youngest ever competitor to take part in the famous Liffey Swim in Dublin. And he won it.

The local boy with the strange name who did the impossible. His photo was all over the Irish newspapers. This weather ain't bad. Welcome to Florida. Thank you very much. Nice to see you. All right. How are you doing? Okay, fine. What do you want to do? Can I get you some lunch? Yeah, we can go. I don't eat lunch, but we can go. You don't take lunch? No, I never eat lunch. Are you serious? Will you have coffee or something like that? No, I'd never eat lunch. Why not?

Let's go right. Okay. You'll have to tell me why you don't eat lunch, though, because that doesn't make any sense. Because since I was a kid, we trained in the morning, we trained in the afternoon. So you could never eat lunch before you went. train in the afternoon. You'll be sick as a dog during a workout. I don't ever remember, ever remember eating lunch. No way? Ever.

George just kind of inserted himself into my life. I was really young. He saw the potential. He started to take me to different places. I liked the attention. I mean, I was only 10, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. But he could probably see that I had something swimming-wise. So George then really was like, he's mine. He ingratiated himself with me and my family to the point where everybody trusted him. I used to go around to his house all the time for weight sessions, different things, right?

It was in like a terraced house just off the South Circle of Road. And the room itself was a dark room, right? The curtain is always closed, obviously, because there are those big... long windows into those old houses so you could see right in. So the curtains always close. But I would go in. There was a, you know, one of these pull-down beds that snaps in. So...

I would go in there, and that's where I would do my weight session. I was only 11, but I was doing weights. They were only light. I would do my workout. put them down and then he'd say, okay, just relax for a few minutes and he'd go out. It was the same thing all the time anyway. He'd come back in and then I would be... lying there and almost like a playful fall down on top of you and then everything would start from there and the conversation was always

What would you do if I was a girl? And I go, I remember the first time I was like, what do you mean? If I was a girl, what would you do? Would you tell me to get off here or would you want to do something? What would you do if I was a girl? And then, and then, and then, and then, and then. And that was really the start. That started before I was, you know, it was in the summer of around when I was 11.

But it happened in the summer, I remember it. George Gibney abused Chalky over five years. Then, one day without explanation, he disappeared. Chalky had no idea where to. We know now that he moved clubs and coached in Watford in the south of the country. But for Chalky, one day he just vanished. This is beautiful. Isn't it just nice? Oh, my God. Look at this. It's immaculate, isn't it? Yeah.

We've just arrived at Pompano Beach, by the way, and it's beautiful. Chalky never mentioned what happened to anyone. The years in between saw him get married and have kids and live a pretty normal life. In 80, I retired from swimming and I started coaching immediately. At that time, he was... Well established as a coach. The swimmers that I was coaching were against the swimmers that he was coaching. And we began to almost like, not necessarily work together, but...

on a friendly basis, talk. And that was the start of the confusion. If you ask me, was I confused as an 11-year-old? No, I was confused as a 35-year-old, 30-year-old. It was a secret in my life that I was carrying around. I could see that he was continuing to do what he did to me, to others. It was a complicated time. I was embarrassed. I was ashamed. I... Yeah, I was afraid I wouldn't get through it. I was on a point where I was... I needed to make sure that I survived.

That was my first thing. I didn't want anything to happen to anybody else. But I'm not going to take responsibility for doing something. to save other people. That was not my ulterior motive. My ulterior motive was just to look after me. Just look after me. Chalky explained to me in detail what had gone on. And I said, wow. When he said he did it to me, it was like the clouds parted. No, I don't mind it at all because weekends are always free for other stuff that you want to do.

And it's like the curtains coming down and you just go, oh my God, that's what that was all about. It has to be. I knew that I had such a high level of competition that I had a chance to do good times. I had to make the most of the competition. Everything. It was like the cornerstone in the piece of a jigsaw. Everything started to make sense to me. Everything.

The 30 seconds that that girl had spent on the side of the pool just looking at me. The ostracization of female swimmers from male swimmers and the act of disencouragement of any kind of... social interaction between boys and girls. I paused and he said, what are you going to do about this? I said, I don't know what I'm going to do about this, but I will do something about it. I sat there, looked at him, told him that I believed him.

I was saying, I'm going to do something about this. And he said, what are you going to do? And he was kind of worried about what I'm going to do. I said, I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm going to make sure that people know of this guy's behavior. And I said to him, I said, I think there's more people out there. I'm going to find those people.

If you've been affected by any of the issues in this series, please contact support organisations in your own country. For a list of organisations in the UK that can provide support for survivors of sexual abuse, forward slash action line. If you are a former swimmer with George Gibney or have any information, however minor, that you feel could help the producers, please contact us confidentially

That's whereisgeorgegibney, all one word, at bbc.co.uk. And you can find us on social at Second Captains. Where Is George Gibney is a Second Captains production for BBC Sounds. The series is written and produced by me, Mark Horgan, and Ciarán Cassidy. It's co-produced with Maria Horgan, and editing is also by Ciarán Cassidy. Research and fact-checking is by Cillian Down. Our composer is Michael Fleming. And sound mixing is by Jare MacDonald.

Our theme tune is by Aaron Desner. The executive producer for the BBC is Dylan Haskins and the commissioning editor is Jason Phipps. You'll be able to listen to episode two of Where Is George Gibney. It's called We've Been Expecting You. from next Thursday, 3rd of September. You can subscribe on the free BBC Sounds app.

Save with digital coupons at Tom Thumb. This week at Tom Thumb, get signature select whole frozen turkey. 12 pounds enough for 55 cents per pound with digital coupon. With a $35 minimum purchase, excluding the turkey, alcohol, tobacco, pharmacy, and other standard exclus... Limit six total. Visit Tom Thumb

When Vivint Smart Security gives you a smarter way to protect, and its smart thermostats give you a smarter way to save, well, that's a smarter way to live. Get the smarter home system that just gets you. at Vivint.com.