Now ex-surgeon is being sued by 102 complainants

A HIGH Court judge has said there is ‘very great urgency’ to 102 upcoming civil actions for damages against sex predator Michael Shine.

The remarks were made by Judge Úna Ní Raifeartaigh in the High Court yesterday just hours before the ex-surgeon was convicted in the Circuit Court of historical sex offences.

Lawyers for the alleged victims have complained their clients have ‘suffered huge delay’.

In 2012 more than 100 of the ex-surgeon’s former patients reportedly reached a settlement that was believed to exceed €8million in total with the religious order that ran Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co. Louth.

In December 2017 the Mail revealed a further 90 complainants have lodged claims for alleged sexual abuse against the former surgeon and were seeking payouts. In the months that followed that figure rose to 102 new claimants.

They are suing Shine, the HSE and Medical Missionaries of Mary, the religious order that ran the hospital while Shine was employed there.

In the High Court yesterday Sasha Gayer SC, for all 102 claimants, said some of the actions currently waiting to proceed to trial were first lodged as far back as 2013.

She said: ‘We’ve been suffering huge delay.’

Ms Gayer SC explained her clients first had to ‘come to terms with what happened’ to them decades ago before they were able to contemplate mounting legal actions.

Judge Ní Raifeartaigh said it would be best if the trials proceeded ‘as quickly as possible’, adding: ‘There is very great urgency to this case.’

It was heard that the cases could get under way in the High Court as soon as July.

One of the six ‘lead’ cases is taken by one of two patients that Shine was convicted in November 2017 of indecently assaulting in the 1970s when the patient was 15.

None of the plaintiffs can be named.