Shine patients demand review of trial

ALLEGED victims of former consultant surgeon Michael Shine, who was struck off for sexually abusing patients, have demanded a review of the criminal trial that cleared him of sex offences.

Shine, who worked at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, until 1995, was acquitted of 10 charges in relation to five former male patients at his trial in Dundalk in 2003. But last year he was found guilty by the Medical Council of sexual abuse amounting to professional misconduct and was removed from the register of practitioners.

A newly formed campaign group, Dignity for Patients, now wants a full independent inquiry into his behaviour at the hospital over a 30-year period and say the way the criminal investigation and trial were carried out must also be reviewed.