A man who claims he was groped by a now retired Tipperary born surgeon has admitted he considered withdrawing his complaint but denies there was no basis to it.
Ardfinnan native Dr. Michael Shine of Wellington Road in Dublin 4 is accused of indecently assaulting six boys while he was working at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.
The abuse is alleged to have happened on various dates between 1964 and 1991 while Dr. Michael Shine was a general surgeon at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and at his private clinic on nearby Fair Street.
In his direct evidence yesterday, the first of the six complainants said he was indecently assaulted during an examination in 1964 when he was 13.
Some years later, he said he contacted a campaign group after hearing ads on local radio asking people who’d ever been treated by Dr. Shine to come forward.
Under cross-examination, he said he attended a number of advocacy meetings but didn’t make a complaint until February 2014. He accepted he had considered withdrawing his statement at one stage but denied it was because there was no basis to it.
Hugh Hartnett, who’s defending Dr. Shine, then suggested nothing untoward happened to him at all, to which the man replied: “that’s wrong”.
Dr. Shine denies eight counts of indecent assault against the six– who were all teenage boys at the time of the alleged offending.
