Lake Alice abuse survivor never found hope
Thursday, 17 June 2021
GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING:
A boy taken to a psychiatric facility was subjected to electric shocks on his head, body and genitals while being held down by staff.
Fred Rawiri said, while giving evidence at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care in Auckland on Thursday, the electric shocks were mostly to his temples, but were once placed on his genitals.
“I never knew anything about ECT or shock treatment before I went to Lake Alice. But I did afterwards.”
The inquiry is investigating the Lake Alice child and adolescent unit, which operated from 1972 until 1978, near Marton.
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Rawiri, 60, would be escorted upstairs at the unit to find Dr Selwyn Leeks, the psychiatrist who led the treatment, standing at the head of the bed.
“They had to physically hold me down because I was kicking the whole time and trying to get free.
“The shocks would start off mild and then get stronger and stronger. It felt like an eternity.”
The shocks to his genitals were not as long, but much more painful.
Rawiri said he thought he received shock treatment about four times, and he defecated in his pants every time.
He said he received paraldehyde injections as punishment, and the drugs made him spaced out and gave him hallucinations.
He ended up in state institutions after his third burglary charge. He was one of 15 children, and would get into trouble for small things such as taking milk money to buy food.
He was placed into Hamilton’s Boys' Home before going to Hokio Beach School then Lake Alice.
He said he tried hard to forget what happened at Lake Alice, turning to crime, and gangs for security.
He was in and out of prison for the next 20 years for offences such as theft, burglary, and driving while disqualified.
Rawiri suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and social anxiety disorder. He has a fear of being watched and judged.
“I remember screaming from the intense burning”
Alan Hendricks said his father wanted to get rid of him and Leeks was happy to have another child to torture.
The 59-year-old was in Lake Alice for seven months, when he was 13.
After trying to use rolled up newspaper as a cigarette at home, his father took him to Lake Alice, despite his high levels of intelligence and no mental illness.
“My father had often threatened that he would take me there and apply ECT. He knew what was happening there and would scare us with stories to keep us in line.”
Hendricks said he never received electric shock therapy, but they would wheel the machine into the dining room at dinner time, as a threat.
Hendricks was terrified and would try his best not to misbehave, but was given paraldehyde injections as punishment.
“Getting paraldehyde in the arm is excruciatingly painful. I’ve had two hips replaced and spinal surgery, but that pain was something else.”
He remembered screaming from the intense burning.
Hendricks was supported by Doug Matthews, who was also a Lake Alice survivor.
Matthews prepared a last-minute statement that he said was too emotional to read. Lawyer Alana Thomas read it to commissioners.
Matthews said he hid his Lake Alice story from family and friends for 47 years, and had only opened up since his 60th birthday and since reconnecting with Hendricks.
He said Lake Alice was a life sentence for the children who were put there, and although he might have never found hope, he hoped other survivors would.
Victim of abuse and became an abuser
A woman, referred to as Mrs CC, is the widow of a Lake Alice survivor.
She spoke to commissioners about her late husband, who spent 14 months in the child and adolescent facility when he was 14 and 15.
His whāngai mother beat and neglected him, and he was placed in Hokio Beach School and Kohitere Boys’ Training Centre in Levin before being admitted to Lake Alice.
John Blackmore, one of the nurses, would take the boy to his house in Marton, where he sexually abused him.
The man said, in a previous statement: “I started taking my anger out on the other boys by physically and sexually abusing them. Sexual gratification became a real need for me and John Blackmore’s abuse was the beginning of the problems I had at Lake Alice.”
He was subjected to high levels of electric shock therapy and seclusion because of his sexual assaults on the other boys. The man was charged for the sexual abuse.
The man was also shocked by other children, and on one occasion seven or eight other patients turned the knob before he was knocked unconscious.
On one occasion the others boys shocked his genitals to inflict pain. He also spent time in the maximum security unit with adult criminal patients.
The man was discharged to a borstal, and became involved with gang life, alcohol and drugs. He was in and out of prison for the next 10 years for violent crimes.
CC said her husband met some of his birth family, and saw a counsellor who helped him heal from the abuse he received and dealt.
He died from emphysema. She knew him for three decades, and said he was a good father and husband.
CC said when her husband was alive he was focused on bringing Leeks to justice. He took two claims against the Government and received compensation.
She said what happened to her husband still affected her.
“I was frothing at the mouth and in so much pain”
Donald Kiu was put in foster care aged 7 after his parents were told the children would do better in the state’s care.
The 58-year-old had two admissions to Lake Alice, aged 9 and 15, spending almost two months there.
He said the nurses would kick and slap him as they walked past, and the Māori boys would get it worse.
One nurse would grab the Māori children by the neck and shake them, so they tried to stick together.
Kiu received shock treatment three or four times in the maximum security unit. He was also sexually abused by Nurse Howard. Howard’s first name wasn’t mentioned.
“I was crying and screaming the whole time. I don’t know how long he actually shocked me for, but it felt like ages. I was frothing at the mouth and was in so much pain.”
Kiu said every morning the kids were given drugs. He didn’t know what they were or why he was being given them.
“I didn’t know how to control my anger and they didn’t give me tools to help me to settle down. They would just give me drugs and make it worse.”
After he was discharged from Lake Alice he went to Kimberley Hospital in Levin. He said they told him it was for schooling, but the horrible experiences continued.
“My whole life has been demeaned and destroyed by the anger and sorrow I feel from my childhood experiences.”