Michael Shine convicted of indecent assault on two patients

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

A jury convicted retired surgeon Michael Shine of indecently assaulting two teenage patients after a trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The proceedings were reported on 2 November 2017.

Shine, then aged 85, had pleaded not guilty to eight charges involving six patients at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and his private clinic, both in Drogheda, Co Louth, between 1964 and 1991.

On 2 November 2017, after deliberating for just over six hours, the jury returned majority guilty verdicts on three counts involving two patients between 1974 and 1976. Judge Cormac Quinn remanded Shine on continuing bail until 1 December 2017 for sentencing.

One patient testified that Shine touched him under a blanket at the hospital in 1976. The second testified that Shine touched him during two follow-up examinations at the private clinic. Shine admitted attending to the two patients but denied doing anything inappropriate during their examinations.

On 1 November 2017, the jury acquitted Shine of four charges involving three other teenage boys on dates in 1964, 1970 and 1976. Shine denied ever seeing them, and there were no medical records confirming he had seen them on the alleged dates.

During the trial, Judge Quinn directed the jury to acquit Shine of another charge involving a boy between 1988 and 1991. He withdrew the charge because a nurse, whom the complainant said was present throughout the examination, could not be found.

The defence maintained that the complainants were not independent, might have been colluding and were motivated by civil actions to make their complaints. The report said the six complainants had received €70,000 in compensation in a settlement that made no admission of liability.