A ban on reporting the identity of a former hospital consultant at the centre of indecent assault charges has been lifted by Judge Michael O'Shea at Dundalk Circuit Criminal Court.
Dr Michael Shine (72) with an address at Wellington Road, Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts alleging he assaulted six teenage boys who were patients of his between 1974 and 1982. The assaults are alleged to have taken place at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, Co Louth, and at his private consulting rooms on Fair Street, Drogheda.
Before the trial began on Wednesday, Judge O'Shea ordered that neither the complainants nor the accused should be identified for the duration of the trial. However, he vacated the order relating to the accused yesterday following an application by Independent Newspapers Limited.
Judge O'Shea also repeated his order that the press and media do not publish any material that would tend to identify the six complainants.
The first complainant, Mr A, says he was 14 in 1975 when he alleges he was twice indecently assaulted at the hospital and once at the doctor's private rooms.
Yesterday he admitted under cross-examination that he had two criminal convictions last year. He suffered from depression and agreed with Mr Felix McEnroy, defending, that he has had "an exceptional amount of misfortune" in his life, but denied that he was blaming this on Dr Shine.
Mr A admitted yesterday that his criminal convictions followed an incident during which he had "a feed of drink" and went to a house and broke the windows.
He believed he was convicted of criminal damage, but accepted that the court records showed the offence was of being a trespasser in the house while in possession of a knife. They also showed that he was convicted of breaching his bail in relation to the same case.
The trial continues this morning.