A JURY HAS convicted retired surgeon Michael Shine of indecently assaulting two young male patients in a hospital in the mid-70s.
Shine (85) of Wellington Rd in Dublin had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to eight charges of indecently assaulting six patients at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and at his private clinic, both in Drogheda, Co Louth, on dates between 1964 and 1991.
Yesterday the jury of four men and eight women acquitted him of a number of these charges.
Just before midday today, having deliberated for just over six hours, the jury of four men and eight women returned majority guilty verdicts on the outstanding counts.
These charges alleged that Shine assaulted two teenage patients on dates between 1974 and 1976. Shine admitted attending to these patients but denied that anything inappropriate was done during his medical examinations.
One victim was aged around 15 or 16 in 1976 when he attended at the hospital with an in-growing toenail.
He told the trial that Dr Shine strapped him down on a bed with rubber bungee restraints and a blanket and then slipped his hand under the blanket and started massaging his testicles.
He said he knew what was happening was weird but didn’t know if he could speak out because he was “just a young boy”.
The second victim testified that during two follow up examinations for undescended testes at Shine’s private clinic in Drogheda, Shine massaged the base of his penis. The victim, who was in his mid teens at the time, told the trial that he told himself for years that there was nothing improper about what the doctor did.
Judge Cormac Quinn remanded Shine on continuing bail until 1 December for sentencing.
The six complainants were all teenage boys at the time they allege Dr Shine touched them in their genital areas while treating them for injuries such as cuts to a knee, an injury to a finger and an injured toe.
Yesterday the jury found Shine not guilty of four charges which cover alleged offences against three teenagers on dates in 1964, 1970 and 1976.
Shine has denied ever seeing these patients and there were no medicals records to confirm that he had seen them on the dates of the alleged assaults.
During the 12 day trial Judge Quinn directed the jury to acquit Shine of one count of indecently assaulting one of the complainants on a date between 1988 and 1991, after a defence application.
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