From top George Gibney, Irvin Muchnick
You may recall two previous posts about former Irish swimming coach George Gibney.
One post detailed how Gibney – who was charged with 27 counts of indecency against young swimmers and of carnal knowledge of girls under the age of 15 in April, 1993 – sought and won a High Court judicial review in 1994 that quashed all the charges against him.
The judicial review was secured after a landmark Supreme Court decision, during which Gibney’s senior counsel Patrick Gageby argued that the delay in initiating the prosecution against Gibney infringed his right to a fair trial.
Mr Gageby’s sister Susan Denham was on the bench of the Supreme Court that day.
The second post was a timeline of events concerning Gibney, the allegations made against him and how he eventually went to live in America after the charges against him were dropped.
The timeline explained how American journalist Irvin Muchnick has been attempting to obtain the US Department of Homeland Security’s immigration file on Gibney – in an effort to understand how Gibney was able to get a visa and then a green card to live in the States, given the previous charges against him.
In July 2015, following his FOI request to the US authorities for the file, Mr Muchnick received just four pages of Gibney’s file.
On April 17, 2016, the Sunday Times, reported that further documents released to Mr Muchnick show that Gardaí gave Gibney a certificate of character – issued on January 20, 1992 – to support his application for an American visa.
The certificate given to Mr Muchnick was reported to be partially redacted with the name of the issuing officer and its contents obscured.
According to the Murphy Inquiry – which was set up to look at abuse in swimming in 1998 – a parent from a club other than Trojan Swimming Club, where Gibney coached, was told by an assistant coach of Trojan in November 1991 that the gardai and the ISPCC were informed of the allegations in relation to Gibney.
However, later the ISPCC said it had no record of any such complaint in 1991 or in 1992. And, the Murphy Inquiry states the first record on the Garda file is dated December 15, 1992.
Mr Muchnick is still trying to obtain Gibney’s full immigration file and, last Friday, he appeared before Judge Charles Breyer, a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, about the matter.
Mr Muchnik wants to know who assisted or sponsored Mr Gibney in successfully attaining a Green Card. More than 100 American swimming coaches have been jailed and/or banned for life from the sport in the past few years for offences against boys and girls.
Mr Muchnick reports:
At last Friday’s case management conference for Muchnick v. Department of Homeland Security, in his San Francisco federal courtroom, Judge Charles Breyer stated that he would review in camera 19 disputed documents from George Gibney’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services file, and render a decision. (In camera review, which our side had requested, means the judge will inspect the records privately in his chambers. The assistant U.S. attorney handed over to the court unredacted copies of the documents.) Judge Breyer did not say when he would rule.
More as we get it.
Judge Breyer Brings George Gibney FOIA Dispute Close to Resolution (Irvin Muchnick, Concussion Inc)
Previously: Unreasonable Delay
The Chief Justice, Her Brother And How George Gibney Got Away
