ONE OF MICHAEL Shine’s youngest alleged victims says he doesn’t believe in Ireland’s justice system because of his experience since coming forward about his abuse. 

In his first ever interview about his case, Larry Torris tells The Journal that he was sexually abused by the former doctor while he was still groggy from general anesthesia, administered for an operation in 1994, just days after his 10th birthday. 

Larry insists that a public inquiry into the events that surround Shine’s reign of terror is essential, because “we cannot hide from it anymore as a society”.

He believes that an inquiry will help people to understand the extent of the paedophile’s abuse and how much it continues to impact victims and their families.

A group of Shine’s victims are speaking out together, publicly, for the first time today to call for a Commission of Investigation into the doctor’s decades of abuse. 

The 40-year-old outlines a number of unexpected ways he is triggered in ordinary life. In 2020, he was admitted to hospital suffering from chronic testicular pain, undergoing surgery last year to treat the condition.

That experience provoked painful memories of being sexually assaulted by Shine decades earlier. He recalls how he first experienced vivid flashbacks while watching an episode of Downton Abbey, when during an episode a female character is raped.

“I know it sounds bizarre, but there is a scene where after it happens, she is describing how she feels and how she feels unworthy of the people around her and it registered that that was how I was feeling.”

As memories of his own sexual assault flooded back to him, he crawled into the bathroom and vomited.

“I felt like I was screaming, but there was no sound and I was throwing up.”

Larry then began to suffer panic attacks. His flashbacks include images of Shine’s white coat and the sound of his voice.

“The biggest part of it was being able to feel his hands…What I feel is him putting his finger inside of me.

“Part of it is that I was not fully conscious from the anaesthetic. It’s like my body is trying to wake up and it can’t. I’m trying to move, but I can’t.”

In recent months, he has attended counselling, which is helping him to cope.

Larry discussed the impact of waiving his anonymity as part of this public campaign for a Commission of Investigation.

“I shouldn’t have to do it, but if it is necessary and if it is going to get justice and maybe make the system better for people, that matters more. It trumps discomfort.

“The truth matters more to me than ignoring it.

“The potential of justice coming from this overpowers waiving of anonymity and the apprehension related to that.”

Larry is originally from Dunleer, County Louth, but now lives in Dundalk. He said that he understands that his decision to speak out will also impact those close to him.

“There is that aspect that everyone is going to know who I am and I am going to have people coming up to my parents asking them about it, coming up to my partner, to people in my family who don’t know yet and this is how they are going to find out.

“I think not necessarily that I have this sense of responsibility to do it, but I don’t see why he gets to essentially escape being held accountable and if that [speaking out] is necessary to make sure that people know and understand the extent of it so that other people won’t have it happen to them as well.”

He said that he has “very little faith in the justice system”.

“Part of me doesn’t believe in the system here anymore. I don’t feel protected. I don’t feel represented. It feels as if the welfare of the perpetrator almost matters more.”

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Shine’s name has long been associated with legal battles about the many allegations against him. He was first accused of abuse by a whistleblower in 1995 and charged with indecent assault in 1996. His legal tactics delayed any trial relating to those charges from starting until 2003. He was then acquitted.

Two more trials, in 2017 and 2019, saw him found guilty of assaults against nine boys. More charges led to another protracted legal saga, culminating in the Court of Appeal ruling that “cumulative factors” – including Shine’s age and health, and a ‘misstep’ by the Director of Public Prosecutions – meant the case was in a “wholly exceptional category where it would be unjust to put the appellant on trial”.

Even after being convicted of sexual offences in 2017 and 2019, there were more legal plays used by Shine. He was granted bail in 2017 pending an appeal of that initial conviction. His legal team argued for a delay to the start of his next trial which was granted to allow for a fade factor after publicity from the first trial. Instead of starting in June 2018, the trial was pushed back to January 2019. 

In February 2020, he was found guilty of assaulting seven boys who were in his care between 1971 and 1992. He ran out of legal road and was taken to Midlands Prison to start his four-year sentence. 

His appeal against his initial conviction and 20-month sentence was then dismissed on 3 July 2019. He withdrew a separate appeal against his 2019 sentence in 2021. 

He served three years’ in Midlands Prison and was released in 2022. He now resides in Dublin 4. 

Today, a leading law firm has announced it has been retained by a victims’ group to seek a State inquiry into the alleged scale of the abuse – and if authorities could have stopped it earlier.