< Back to front page Text size – +

Hanover man allegedly drugged 6-year-old kidnap victim with cocaine

E-mail|Link|Comments () July 1, 2009 03:36 PM

By Matt Collette, Globe Correspondent

HINGHAM -- A Hanover man drugged a young girl with cocaine before he attempted to rape her, prosecutors said in court today.

Tests administered after a 6-year-old girl was abducted and nearly raped by a neighbor "clearly show the child had cocaine in her system almost immediately after the attack," prosecutor Sharon Donatelle said at a hearing held this morning in Hingham District Court to determine if Justin Shine, 26, would pose a danger to the community if he were released.

Judge Ronald Moynahan said the case was one of the worst he had seen in his 25-year career.

"I hate to say it, but it's the truth. This case is as bad as they come and this man is as dangerous as they come," said Moynahan as he ordered Shine held without bail until a detention hearing on July 28.

Donatelle said the only reason Shine did not rape the young girl was because of immediate police response to the Hanover Woods apartment complex. She said the Plymouth district attorney's office is considering filing further charges against Shine, such as drugging a person during a kidnapping or drugging a person for the purpose of sexual intercourse, both felony crimes.

According to court documents, Shine slashed his wrists with a knife before he let the girl go.

"His attempt to commit suicide shows that he is certainly mentally unbalanced," Donatelle said.

Shine's court-appointed lawyer, William Leonard, agreed that his client suffered from mental illness and said that he was afflicted with bipolar disorder and drug addiction. But he said Shine had already decided to let the girl go and was looking for the key to the shackles he had placed on her ankles when police arrived. Unable to open the lock, Leonard said, Shine let the girl out a back door, her legs still in chains.

"It was very consistent with someone who comes to his senses and just says, 'What am I doing?'" Leonard said.

He said Shine has no criminal record and asked the judge to release his client on $5,000 bail. At Shine's arraignment on Monday, the court entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. In court this morning, Shine -- who still had a black eye from his struggle with police -- sat silently, his head between his knees for most of the proceeding.

Leonard called the alleged attack "a one-time aberration" and said that, if released, Shine would pose no threat to the community. Moynahan sided with prosecutors and refused to release Shine under any conditions.

"I think this man reaps terror on 6-year-old little girls. I have heard enough here to find that Mr. Shine being released would cause a terror to the Commonwealth," Moynahan said. "I have no hesitance holding him without bail."