As Derry O'Rourke, the former national and Olympic swimming coach, prepares to leave prison this week, civil proceedings for damages, initiated by 15 of his victims when he was first convicted in January 1999, have still not reached a courtroom. The women, who were young children when they were sexually abused, have not received a cent in compensation.

Part of the delay is caused by a separate legal action instituted by swimming's governing body against its insurance company, Royal Sun Alliance, in an attempt to secure indemnity against the claims.

The Irish Amateur Swimming Association (as Swim Ireland was known until after O'Rourke went to jail) and its Leinster branch are being sued for negligence, breach of duty and precarious liability.

Derry O'Rourke and King's Hospital school in Dublin, which housed the swimming club where most of the crimes were perpetrated, are also named defendants in the case.

Like George Gibney, his predecessor as national coach who later fled the jurisdiction, O'Rourke sought a judicial review of his prosecution by the state. It failed and he was sent down for 12 years.

Two more sets of prosecutions followed as more victims came forward. He received another seven years' jail in 2001 and 10 more in 2005 for charges including statutory rape. Now those victims are horrified that he is to be released. They have not been told if he will be required to sign on at a garda station, if his name will be added to the sex offenders' register, where he will live or even if he has received treatment.

"We were served lip service on a cold plate, " said one victim. "We had the naive trust that they would look out for us.

To say they did something for us is only massaging their own egos and salving their own consciences."