Four victims of sexual abuse at the hands of a former Olympic-level Irish swim coach have settled their lawsuit with the town council that hired him, according to the Irish Times.
The four victims, all men, had sued former coach Gerard Doyle and the New Ross Town Council, which had employed him as a swim coach at the New Ross Swimming Pool.
Doyle had already been convicted in criminal court. The 52-year-old former Olympic swim coach was convicted in the summer of 2012 of 35 sex-related crimes against children that he committed between January 1981 and December 1993. He was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.
But the Irish Examiner reports that after an appeal to the High Court, a retrial was ordered based on a legal technicality.
The four men alleged that the town council erred in employing Doyle without ensuring he was a suitable person to interact with children, and they also claimed the council failed to fire Doyle when they knew about (or should have known about) his attraction to young boys. The council denied both claims.
But after meeting for several hours this week, the two sides came to a settlement, and a judge said on Wednesday that the cases brought against New Ross Town Council could be struck out.
The suit against Doyle was also struck out. The Irish Independent reports that judgment had already been entered in that case last November when Doyle did not enter any defense against the charges.
