A Florida judge ordered the extradition of George Gibney back to his native Ireland on Friday.
A former Irish swimming coach, Gibney has a warrant out for his arrest from the Irish government, which has charged him with 78 counts of indecent assault and one charge of attempted rape against four minor girls between ages 8 and 15 at the time of the alleged offenses.
Gibney was the head coach of the Irish Olympic swimming teams in 1984 and 1988 and has been living in the United States since 1995.
Now 77, Gibney appeared in Orlando before U.S. magistrate Judge Daniel Irick, who made the order to remand him into the custody of U.S. marshals pending the arrival of Irish government representatives to transport him back to Ireland.
He will likely appear in a Dublin court, but a date is unknown at this point.
Gibney was arrested on July 1 by federal marshals in Florida on the extradition request. Earlier last week, Gibney agreed to be extradited and stand trial in Ireland, according to the Independent.
During the hearing in front of Judge Irick, Gibney sat in a wheelchair and was dressed in a uniform provided by Orange County Jail, according to Irish national broadcaster RTE.
According to The Denver Gazette, Gibney came to Colorado in 1995 after he was indicted in 1993 on 27 counts of indecent carnal knowledge of underage swimmers in Ireland.
The case was abandoned after the Irish Supreme Court said that the passage of time since the alleged crimes — beginning in the late 60s — made it impossible for him to receive a fair trial.
Gibney coached for five years in Colorado before moving on to coach in California and Florida.
While in Colorado, Gibney had a brief coaching stint with the North Jeffco Hurricanes, a USA Swimming program in Arvada, according to the Gazette.
The charges came about following a podcast produced by Second Captains and the BBC in 2020 entitled Where Is George Gibney? which highlighted allegations of abuse and led to 18 more victims to come forward against him.
