Disgraced Shine is convicted of groping patients
Former doctor assaulted 7 boys over 21 years
DISGRACED ex-surgeon Michael Shine has been convicted of groping seven boys in his care over a 21-year period.
Yesterday afternoon, a jury convicted the 86-year-old of 13 charges relating to seven male victims after six hours and four minutes of deliberations.
Shine, 86, who had complained from the witness box that his latest criminal trial was ‘unfair’, then left court on bail pending sentence.
He must return to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on February 22 when he will be sentenced for the offences.
The guilty verdicts on the 13
Struck off the medical register
charges were delivered to Judge Martin Nolan by the jury following a 17-day trial.
Straight after the verdicts were announced, a weary-looking Shine hobbled around the ground-floor lobby of Dublin’s Criminal Courts of Justice complex staring at the ground with his hands in his coat pockets.
Wearing a flat cap with creamcoloured jacket and jumper, blue shirt, black trousers and black shoes, he was photographed by the waiting media as he exited the complex.
Shine was struck off the medical register in 2009, having lost a 2006 High Court bid to stop a Medical Council inquiry into his conduct.
He has always denied any suggestion of wrongdoing.
Giving evidence this week, Shine claimed there were no medical records to back up the prosecution’s case – and asserted that to question him about alleged events from so many years ago ‘is unfair, is unjust, is wrong’. He also told jurors that he had ‘got some senile dementia’.
Shine had pleaded not guilty to 13 charges of indecent assault, committed during medical examinations at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co. Louth, and at two private clinics in the town on dates between 1971 to 1992.
But yesterday a jury of eight men and two women found him guilty on all counts.
Judge Nolan fixed February 22 for sentencing and remanded Shine on bail.
While on bail he is required to live at his address in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, to sign on once a week at his local Garda station and to undertake not to leave the country.
During the trial, one victim said that Shine prevented his father from being present for a medical examination following surgery on his testicles in 1985, when he was aged 13.
He said that Shine placed his hand on his private parts during the examination.
Another victim said he was hit by a car in 1972, when he was 14, and had required surgery on his right knee.
He said that Shine would come to his room in the evening to play chess with him during his stay in hospital – and that during a follow-up appointment, Shine began groping him.
Shine denied doing anything improper during examinations with any of the complainants and said he had ‘no memory whatsoever’ of ever treating any of them. He also said he never played chess.
After the verdict, Judge Nolan thanked the jury for their attendance and for doing their duty.