"I would have preferred to have had 50 years of a rotten appendix than have him ‘cure’ me"
- Dignity 4Patients
- May 7
- 3 min read
Updated: May 8
By Saoirse McGarrigle - The Journal - 08.05.2025 - {Michael Shine] - [IRELAND]
Disgraced Surgeon Michael claimed during the 2019 trial that saw him jailed for abusing seven boys that he had “no memory whatsoever” of any of the victims, but in an interview with The Journal last week he recalled the medical treatment he gave one victim and shared details of the abdominal surgery that he performed on him.
Furthermore, the paedophile surgeon claimed to have “cured him”.
In an exclusive interview at his Ballsbridge home last week, the 92-year-old said: “What I was convicted of – he was somebody I treated when he was 11 and I cured him.”
He gave a detailed account of his interactions with this man: “He saw me in the outpatients with his father on a few occasions, then he was admitted as an emergency.” “I didn’t know what was wrong with him. I had no idea what was wrong with him.”
I did all the tests and all the investigations.
Shine said that it was only during abdominal surgery that he discovered the source of the boy’s “recurring pain”.
While he did not give a name, The Journal has established that he was referring to Pat Cusack, who was just 11 years old when he first encountered Shine.
Pat attended Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda with severe stomach cramps in 1974.
He was sexually abused by Shine during an outpatients appointment and later that year he underwent surgery on his appendix. Shine abused him 19 times while he was recovering in hospital.
Reacting to Shine’s claims, Pat, now aged 63, said: “I would have preferred to have had 50 years of a rotten appendix than have him ‘cure’ me. Instead, I got 50 years of trauma.”
He continued: “Am I supposed to be grateful for what he did to me?”
“Of course he cured me, wasn’t that his job as a doctor?”
He added: “We (the victims) were all just toys for him.”
Shine was convicted in 2019 of assaulting six boys in his care over a period of three decades and given a four-year jail sentence.
Cusack, who was one of the patients abused by Shine in that case, waived his right to anonymity in the wake of the sentencing, telling the court that the former surgeon had handed him “a life sentence of pain, hurt, anguish and shame”.
Pat said that while some of the things Shine said “might make you raise an eyebrow,” he was not shocked to hear his repeated denial of any wrongdoing.
He added that it was disturbing how Shine had “no qualms” about admitting in last week’s interview that he has now become friends with convicted rapist John Daly.
Daly is a convicted sex offender – now in his 60s – who sexually assaulted two teenage girls on the Luas while they were en route to a Rihanna concert. In 2014, he was given a four-year sentence, with the final two years suspended. The pair met while behind bars at the Midlands Prison.
Shine confirmed to The Journal that he has hired Daly to help him with cooking and cleaning around his Ballsbridge home.
Hundreds of men claim that they were abused by the former surgeon over decades, but in 2025, he is a free man after serving just three years in prison.
In spite of 376 victims coming forward, only nine of these men have had successful prosecutions in the criminal courts.
Survivors feel like justice has not been served. They are now looking for a Commission of Investigation to be established to inquire into how his alleged abuse was allowed to go unfettered for so long, and why it took decades to secure a conviction.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article and were abused in state run medical and health facilities, you can contact Dignity4Patients, whose helpline is open Monday to Thursday 10am to 4pm.
Dignity4Patients Commentary:- After previously claiming in court that he couldn't recall any of his victims, the specifics Michael Shine shared in this interview challenge his defense of diminished mental capacity for trials. Could this constitute perjury? The act of intentionally making false statements or misrepresentations while under oath. #TruthMatters #SexualAbuse #CommissionOfInvestigation
