Medic ‘unable to recall four patients’ in sex abuse trial

A RETIRED surgeon who denies indecently assaulting male patients at a hospital has told a jury he has no memory of treating four of the complainants.

Michael Shine, 85, who is accused of eight charges of indecently assaulting six patients, said he would never do anything to embarrass or upset a patient.

Dr Shine, of Wellington Road, Dublin, has denied eight charges of indecently assaulting six patients at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and at his private clinic, both in Drogheda, Co. Louth, between 1964 and 1991.

In evidence, Dr Shine told the jury he did not indecently assault any complainants and has no memory of treating four of the alleged victims.

The jury has heard there are no medical records linking three of these complainants to Dr Shine.

He accepted he did treat two of the complainants. He agreed there are medical records of him attending these patients. Dr Shine said he remembered treating one of these complainants for undescended testicles in 1974. He said he would have examined the testicles every time this patient came to see him but he denied indecently assaulting the patient. He said his relationship with this patient was ‘a perfectly normal doctor-patient’ one. He said: ‘I treated him with the greatest of respect’. Under cross-examination from Bernard Condon SC, prosecuting, Dr Shine denied taking advantage of this patient. He accepted he did treat one complainant, in around 1976, for an infected ingrowing toenail. The jury has heard two letters linking this complainant to Dr Shine exist, including one from Dr Shine to the patient’s GP.

Dr Shine told Hugh Hartnett SC, defending, that he examined the upper part of this patient’s thigh due to the risk of infection spreading.

But Mr Condon put it to him he had just ‘made this up’ to cover up his alleged actions.

Dr Shine said he was speaking from ‘my wide experience of how I’d see this person’. He said: ‘From what I wrote in the letter I know what I did for him.’ He said he had no memory of this patient apart from the letter.

Yesterday Judge Cormac Quinn told the jury he was withdrawing the charge in relation to one complainant. He said he would direct them to find Dr Shine not guilty of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old boy between 1988 and 1991.

The trial continues on Tuesday.