| 05. Florin Gheorghe, the trainer who was sentenced to 8 years in prison for killing Adriana Giurca (Romanian gymnast), speaks for the first time after leaving the prison of Jilava. He explains what he thinks being innocent means. Original article published in ‘Gazeta Sporturilor’, July 25, 2001. There are three articles. In the autumn of 1993, the tragedy of a 10-year-old child, a gymnast at the club Dinamo, who died during the training after she was being pushed quite brutally by her trainer Florin Gheorghe, shook Romanian gymnastics. Her name was Adriana Emilia Giurca and she was one of the most promising girls of the CSS7 Dinamo club. At that time, the international press released the news quite promptly and it was sent all over the world as 'Breaking News' and a lot of foreign news crews came to Bucharest from Eurosport, ZDF, ORT etc. 3 months after the death of Adriana, Florin Gheorghe was arrested and then sentenced to 8 years in prison for murder. Afterwards, the Appeal Court reduced his sentence to 6 years, changing the charges to manslaughter. Due to good behaviour, Florin left the jail after 3 and a half years. Since then, more than 3 years have passed and Florin has completely abandoned gymnastics, leading a withdrawn life until he agreed to do this interview in which he talks about the tragic accident in 1993. Q: Florin, I know it's difficult for you to talk about this but please try to think back at the moment of the accident... A: It's very difficult for me to remember exactly what happened. I was in shock back then but afterwards I had to tell the same story about a 100 times. Q: So.... A: I know that it was in the autumn of 1993 and there was a little time left until the national championships. Adriana Giurca was the most ambitious girl from them all. However, she refused to do a certain element which she didn't perform well, and I wanted to scare her a little bit so that she would be scared of me and would do the element. I pushed her... Q: Sorry, but are we talking about fists, hands... A: No, not at all like that. Adriana was a gymnast that was close to my heart, I really cared about her. Simply spoken I just pushed her to the floor but she fell on her back. During the fall she probably hit her neck, on the floor, I can't explain what happened. Q: Were there witnesses? A: Yes, there were 3 other girls who confimred that it happened that way, that I just pushed her without meaning to harm her. Q: Does that mean that you regret it? A: Yes, how can I not? It was my mistake that I didn't take it into account that the gymnast was already tired and she wasn't capable of controlling her fall. Normally, a gymnast is used to falling, it happens hundreds of times during the training. Q: Did Adriana get up after she fell? A: Unfortunately no. I phoned the ambulance and they took her to hospital immediately where she died after two days. I stayed with her and her parents all that time until she died. Then I got the biggest shock of my life, it's difficult for me to remember what happened next. Q: At that moment of time, did you realize that you risked being sentenced? A: No, not quite, because I didn't think I was responsible for her death. Surely, I knew it was a tragedy but however lots of people told me to stay calm, that it was a training accident. Even the parents of the girl said that they understood, telling me that I wasn't guilty. Q: Adriana's parents never accused you? A: At first they didn't. Even on the evening of her funeral, I was in their home. Lots of people told me not to go there. I did go and I talked a lot there. Well, what can you say on occasions like that...? When I left, they hugged me and they told me that it wasn't my fault. Q: So they were on your side during the trial? A: No, that's when it started getting a bit strange. I think that their attitude was just a strategy, to see what I would say, to make me talk. Two days after they hugged me at their house, I met with Adriana's parents at the club and I didn't have a clue. Much later, during the trial, her mother shouted 'criminal' at me. Later they wanted a huge sum of compensation, but when I was sentenced to 8 years in prison and a bill of 12 million lei, they appealed for a higher sentence. Q: Do you think they influenced the judges by their attitude? A: No, I don't think so. The toughness with which I was pushed against the wall by the federation and the accusations of the foreign press counted. Maybe the punishment, which I think is exaggerated, was an example for the public opinion. Q: Is it true that during the accident, two trainers assisted but they don't want to admit it? A: No, they were already in the dressing room. They just assisted with a few gymnasts who were at the trial too as witnesses. Q: Were the parents of the other gymnasts bitter towards you? A: Some weren't, they understood what had happened. Others were bitter; mostly those of whom I refused to take presents so they tried to take revenge. I was a correct trainer; I promoted good gymnasts, not for the presents that some parents tried to give me. Q: What do you regret? A: I don't regret anything but I realize that I paid a price too high because I was honest and correct. In this country, you easily escape all kinds of offences. I have said that I didn't want anything to be covered up and because of that I didn't hire myself a lawyer at first. I preferred to do it alone because I considered myself innocent. I haven't lied, I haven't beaten or hit gymnasts. I could have said that it was a training accident and got away with it quite easily. Q: However, you spoke harshly to that girl.... A: My push was nothing compared to a lot of hard practices that happen during a training but I don't want to talk about that. I, however, wasn't a very harsh trainer. I can even tell you this: during a training at Dinamo, lead by the vice president Sorin Satmari, they even told me that I had to be tougher, more firm because otherwise they wouldn't perform well. So they even advised me to be more tough. Q: How was the relation with the club Dinamo, did they support you? A: At the request of the Federation, who took away my right to train, the club ended my contract and I was unemployed right after the accident. I had to work at a wholesale so I could earn my living. After the trial, I was condemned to pay 12 million lei jointly with the club, a lot of money back then, which Dinamo paid immediately but I had to pay them back, leaving me with a debt till 2 years ago. Q: Were you an officer? A: Until October 1993, I was a non-commissioned officer but after that, I became a civilian. Q: Lets go back a bit to the moment after the accident. What happened? A: I don't know how I got over the shock but it was very difficult. After 3 months after Adriana died, I was called to the prosecutor's office for a statement and I was arrested immediately, I wasn't told anything. The trial lasted over a year. Initial I refused every defense, but after that I was sent to Jilava, my parents hired a lawyer for me. However, the trial wasn't fair, the judge was old, a sort inquisitor, who went to school during the time of Gheorghiu Dej. He sentenced me to 8 years for homicide in the first degree but afterwards the Appeal Court lowered the sentence to 6 years for manslaughter. Q: Which prison were you sent to? A: To Jilava and the last 4 months to Poarta Alba. Q: Can you tell us a bit about the time spent in prison? A: It was horrible but I got through it by not giving up. The conditions were inhumane, for example, during every winter we literally sat on ice, the cells didn't even have glass in the windows. It was like sitting outside. Q: Did you have problems? A: How can't you get into trouble if you're not from their world, the offenders. Once, a gypsy wanted me to give him everything that I had in my bag and because I refused, he hit me hard. Q: Did your physical condition help you there? A: Yes, after 14 years of high level gymnastics it helped me to deal with these conditions better. Q: Did you get other visitors than your family? A: Yes, even some of my gymnasts visited me with their parents. Q: How did you react when you heard the sentence of 8 years in prison? A: I heard it in a very distressing way, from the Austrian television crew of ORT. They came to do an interview with me and asked me what I thought of the sentence of 8 years. I couldn't speak for a few minutes because I was stunned. Q: And you came out after 3 and a half years... A: Yes, I was released conditionally. They decided to release me but the prosecutor's office appealed and I had to stay 6 months longer. This happens very rarely, it's clear that somebody wanted to keep me locked up for a much longer time. Q: How was it after you were set free? A: Very difficult. Nobody wanted to hire me. I had no alternative than to start my own company and I deal with the interior arrangements now but it's very difficult. Q: Did you abandon gymnastics definitely? A: Yes, definitely. I live a different live now and I leave what happened behind. Q: Do you have contact with Adriana's parents? A: No, absolutely not but I see other parents from time to time. Q: Have you thought of leaving the country? A: No, never. A year ago I refused an offer from South Africa and from other countries. Q: After all this time, thinking back, what has hurt you the most? A: That Adriana has disappeared, I repeat, I really loved her a lot, the exaggerated accusations of her parents and from the gymnastics officials have hurt me a lot. |
| This article is a detailed account of how Adriana Giurca was murdered in the gymnastics hall during training. Adriana was a gymnast at the CSS Dinamo Bucharest club and at that time she was one of the most talented gymnast trainig there. Adriana was practicing on the balance beam that day. Adriana's coach, Florin Gheorghe, who was known to have a temper, was already in a bad mood when Adriana was working on beam. It was said that it wasn't a very good practice for her and she kept messing up. Her coach began getting very angry. He instructed her to perform a difficult dismount that she rarely ever did right, this time was no exception. Adriana didn't perform the dismount the way Florin Gheorghe would like to have seen, so he started to hit her. He grabbed her by the neck and pounded her head against the beam, yelling "That will teach you to get over your fear of beam!" Reportedly, he then sent her to her next event: floor. A confused, dizzy, crying Adriana was asked to perform a very difficult floor routine. Gheorghe insisted that she would do it perfectly. She tried very hard, but when the routine was less than perfect Gheorghe was not pleased. This sent Gheorghe into a huge fit of rage. Teammates of Adriana claim: "Her mistakes were punished with punches and kicks thrown at Adriana wildly. Those were followed by strikes with a thick bat, and yells, `Shut up! Don't cry!'" Adriana fell into a coma and was taken to the hospital, where her coach claimed she had "fallen from the uneven bars." Doctors who treated her said the injuries were worse than if she had fallen twice the distance of the bar. Adriana died that evening. Florin was not arrested right away since other coaches and gymnasts were afraid of speaking out. Finally, one gymnast did & he was arrested. Adriana's teammates accepted this behavior because they didn't know any other way. "We accepted the beatings and the pain because we were convinced that this would open the door to top performance for us." a young gymnast explained at one court hearing. Her family also tried to sue the Dinamo Bucharest clib because the club knew about Florin's behavour. Adriana's mother said that her daughter would come home with briuses, but she would always claim they were from falling off of the apparatuses and accidents that happened in the gym with the equipment. Gymnasts fall off of the equipment and get hurt all the time, injuries do happen in gymnastics, but not like these ones. Her parents didn't believe her however and they had arranged for Adriana to change gyms. The change was due to happen 2 weeks after she died. The tyrant coach served only an 8 year sentence in jail, which seems far to lenient to me. Adriana's mother said: "That trainer hit my daughter like a beast and her death was more than manslaughter. It was murder and he should have been punished for that." The court also set "moral damage" at 10 million lei (thats $5,600 US) that Gheorghe will have to pay that money to the Giurca family. But that is not enough...and never will be. "The money is nothing for me and my husband. No money can bring our daughter back to life," Mrs. Giurca had said. The Giurca family is still appealing this ruling. Adriana was a young athlete with so much promise. She had hoped that eventually, the world would know her name and her gymnastics. |
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| Adriana Giurca |
| This article is written through the eyes of Adriana Giurca's father, Emil. Gymnastics coach Florin Gheorghe (25) was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment for causing the death of one of his pupils, Adriana Giurca, who was just 11 years old and a very promising gymnast. The is the story told by Adriana’s father, Emil, of the events that happened on that tragic day. “Our daughter, Adriana Emilia Giurca, had been participating in competitive gymnastics at the club ‘Dinamo’ in Bucharest and it all ended very abruptly on the 6th of November 1993. She was supposed to compete at the junior championships on the 11th of November. On the 6th, around 9.40, I, Adriana’s father, drove my daughter to the hall where she had a training-session at Dinamo. I told her I would be back at 2 because there was going to be a meeting with all the parents to discuss what time we would leave for Onesti, where the competition would be held. At around 1 ‘o clock, as I approached the hall, Florin Gheorghe came rushing out, asking me if I came by car because Adriana had ‘fallen’ hard and she hadn’t come to again. I went into the building, where I saw the other girls, who had witnessed the ‘fall’, sitting on the mat crying, but my little girl was on the first floor, in the dressing-room in a coma, while trainer Elena Boboc was trying to reanimate her. I called out to her, but the trainer told me to calm down because she wasn’t able to hear me. In my own car, on a piece of plywood, and with the help of a medical assistant from the club Dinamo and the coach, I took Adriana to the emergency room where I was told that her situation was very serious. She was taken into the intensive care, as she was comatized in a 4th degree, with a spinal injury among other injuries. On the 8th of November 1993, around 6 in the morning she passed away. When I asked the coach what had happened, he told me that Adriana ‘fell’ on her back during her floor routine, she spoke a few words for 20 seconds and then she fainted. On the 8th, after she died, I went to the prosecutor’s office and took the medical information gathered by the hospital and I reported the incident to him and after that I visited the medico-legal institute. On the 9th of November, at around 18.00, I received a phone call from the coach, who asked me if I could meet him in front of my apartment building around 20.00. He came, together with his brother, confessing that he hadn’t told me the truth about what had happened and that he was guilty of Adriana’s death. As Adriana had refused to perform her floor routine again, he had grabbed her and had thrown her on the floor violently and she went into a coma immediately. About 2 weeks after her death, I went to the prosecutor’s office to enquire about the situation and they told me that on the 8th of November, there wasn’t any case filed about Adriana Giurac, so I gave them the file number. After a lot of searching, the file was found at the cities procurator’s office between traffic accidents!! And I was told that it would be send to the procurator’s office as soon as possible with the necessary indications. It took a while before the investigation was on it’s way and all kinds of accusations were made, even that Adriana took medication prior to the training and wasn’t allowed to do gymnastics that day. A medical research however proved that the tests were negative.” Florin Gheorghe was arrested and prosecutor Gheorghe Zamfir said that the case wouldn’t raise any problems at all. “It’s clear that the death of Adriana was caused by an act of violence. I’m very sorry for the parents of the child and also because I had heard how much potential their daughter had to become a great gymnast.” |