Michael Shine jailed for indecent assaults on boys

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

Retired surgeon Michael Shine was jailed for 20 months for indecently assaulting two 15-year-old patients in Co Louth in the mid-1970s. The proceedings were reported on 1 December 2017.

Shine had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to eight charges of indecently assaulting six patients at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and his private clinic in Drogheda, on dates between 1964 and 1991. In November 2017, a jury convicted him of assaulting two patients.

The jury acquitted him of four charges involving three other teenagers. Shine denied ever seeing those patients, and there were no medical records confirming he had seen them on the dates of the alleged assaults. An eighth count, involving a sixth patient, was withdrawn for lack of evidence.

Judge Cormac Quinn imposed consecutive sentences of 10 months for the assault on each victim. He described the breach of trust by a senior doctor as a major aggravating factor, while taking account of Shine’s age, medical conditions, career and character references.

During the trial, Shine admitted seeing the two victims but denied anything improper had happened. Defence counsel Hugh Hartnett SC sought a fully suspended sentence, saying Shine had severe angina, four heart stents and a high risk of progressive dementia. The judge rejected a separate application for a week to arrange Shine’s affairs and medication.