Swim coach appeals sex assault conviction
FORMER SWIM COACH APPEALS CONVICTION
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Wednesday March 10 2010
FORMER New Ross and Olympic swimming coach, Ger Doyle, has appealed his conviction for assaulting five young boys over a 13-year period.
Doyle was sentenced to six and a half years in prison by Judge Alice Doyle at Wexford Circuit Criminal Court earlier this year.
He had protested his innocence last November when a jury of six men and six women found him guilty of 35 offences involving five boys aged 10 to 15 years old at New Ross Swimming Pool between January 1981 and December 1993.
The Courts Service confirmed this week that he has appealed the conviction to the Court of Criminal Appeal. DISGRACED former swimming coach Ger Doyle has appealed his conviction for assaulting five young boys over a 13-year period.
Doyle, of 7 Emmett Place, Wexford, expressed no remorse for his actions as he was sentenced to six and a half years in prison by Judge Alice Doyle at Wexford Circuit Criminal Court earlier this year.
He had protested his innocence last November when a jury of six men and six women found him guilty of 35 offences involving five boys aged 10 to 15 years old at New Ross Swimming Pool between January 1981 and December 1993.
The jury returned a unanimous verdict on the sexual assault charge and 32 indecent assault charges, with majority verdicts on the two remaining indecent assault charges. 'I am not guilty of these charges,' Doyle said, after the verdict was read out.
The Courts Service confirmed this week that he has appealed the conviction to the Court of Criminal Appeal. ' Mr Doyle has appealed against his conviction on these matters,' a spokesman for the Courts Service told this newspaper.
When he came before Judge Doyle on January 28 for sentencing, defence counsel John O'Kelly said his client, a former Olympic and national swimming coach had suffered ' a terrible fall from grace'.
Mr O'Kelly said Doyle was also ' finding it very difficult in prison', where he has been since his conviction last November.
'He's a man who has never smoked and is now living in a smoke-filled environment despite the best efforts of the prison authorities. While he had made a good recovery from two very severe life-threatening conditions he's finding prison life considerably difficult,' said Mr O'Kelly.
Judge Doyle said the offences had been carried out over a period of more than ten years and that Doyle had breached the trust of children under his care and that of their parents.
'He used his position to sexually assault these children; for that is what they were at the time – children. These crimes were carefully planned.
'They required secrecy. These children were put under pressure to keep these crimes a secret,' said Judge Doyle, who also pointed out that having to give evidence in the six-day trial caused further trauma to Doyle's victims.
