A swimming coach set up cameras in an office in a pool in Dublin and recorded young girls over a 12-month period as they were changing into specialist swimsuits, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard.
Matthew Coward, from Shantalla Road in Santry in Dublin, pleaded guilty to the sexual exploitation of children and producing child abuse images and videos between September 2021 and September 2022.Coward was a coach for Swim Ireland, and had trained teenage girls at a pool in Dublin.
The child could not concentrate on her swimming and later told her father, who contacted Kate Hills, Swim Ireland’s National Children’s Officer. Ms Hills in turn contacted Tusla and gardaí. In total, the court heard that nearly 80 videos were found on two phones, which included illegal abusive videos and screenshots of children that focused on private parts.
She said she was overcome with fear and ran away when new coaches were assigned and wanted to show the swimmers a video in the office. Coward, she said, was like a father figure, but she is now much less open and happy, and finds it difficult to trust people, men in particular, including the new coach who has done nothing wrong.
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