Drogheda surgeon faces 14 new Meath complaints

FOURTEEN people from County Meath are among a total of 64 who have made fresh complaints against the disgraced former surgeon Michael Shine, a support group set up to help victims said yesterday (Tuesday). Gardai are investigating the 64 complaints, most of which have been lodged since Mr Shine was found guilty by the Medical Council of sexually assaulting three male patients and was struck off the medical register late last year. The Dignity4Patients group said that in addition to the 14 people from Meath who had made complaints to the Gardai, a further 14 people from the county had approached the group and were considering the making of an official complaints. Spokesperson for the group, Bernadette Sullivan, said yesterday that the complainants were adamant in their quest for the meeting of three results from any enquiry now in progress - "truth, justice, closure." She said that the stress of trying to cope with the daily presence of memories of what happened to them was causing "untold problems" for former patients of the surgeon. Gardai investigating complaints from the total of 64 new complainants have taken a number of medical records from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda where Shine is alleged to have carried out assaults on mainly male patients over a 30-year period since he joined the hospital staff in the early 1960s. A Garda investigation, led by an inspector, is continuing and is based at Drogheda Garda Station but the investigating team also involves Gardai from the domestic violence and sexual assault unit, itself part of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation. The investigating team has also sought the assistance of the Medical Council in examing the records of the patients. There has also been liaison through the Interpol officer at Garda Headquarters with the Indian authorities, in an investigation of Mr Shine's activities there while he had a liaison with an orphanage in the Cochin region. His connection with the orphanage was revealed in an RTE Primetime Investigates programme screened earlier this year. A senior Garda officer said that they hoped to complete a comprehensive file as quickly as possible for the Director of Prosecutions (DPP), who would determine if new criminal charges should be brought against the former surgeon. Ms Sullivan said yesterday that the support group needed to see an investigation come to a conclusion "as soon as physically possible" because of the stress caused to former patients. "The reality is that there are people out there who were among the previous complaints from the 1994-1995 period whose lives have come almost to a standstill because of all this", she said. Gardai sent complaints to the DPP in 1994, following previous complaints, but no prosecutions were brought because of a claimed lack of evidence. In 1996, the DPP directed that proceedings should be taken in relation to 11 complaints against the surgeon. Six cases came to trial in 2003 and the surgeon was found not guilty in five of them. The presiding judge directed that the defendant be found not guilty in relation to the remaining case.