Lake Alice survivor told he was wasting police time when he made first complaint
Sunday, 20 June 2021
Children locked up at Lake Alice psychiatric hospital and subjected to sexual abuse and electric shock therapy that was dished out for spurious reasons are continuing their fight for justice and fair compensation.
When she was prime minister, Helen Clark apologised on behalf of the Government to patients of the institution's child and adolescent unit, which operated from 1972 until 1978, near Marton.
That Labour-led Government settled with those who were part of a class action through lawyer Grant Cameron.
But Lake Alice survivors who gave evidence at the first week of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care’s examination of the unit, being heard in Auckland, say this isn’t enough.
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They have argued for fair compensation and help with mental health problems they trace back to their traumatic experiences at Lake Alice.
They also want to see the man who gave them electro-convulsive treatment, psychiatrist Dr Selwyn Leeks, charged. The commission has heard he raped a young female patient.
Police reopened an investigation into Leeks in 2018. He is 92, lives in Australia and is said to be in poor health.
The inquiry’s second week begins on Monday with evidence from a psychiatric nurse who worked in the unit from 1974-76.
That afternoon Cameron is expected to begin giving evidence.
On Friday, the inquiry heard from Malcolm Richards, who was part of Cameron’s class action.
The Hawke’s Bay man was sent to Lake Alice as a 15-year-old for two months in late 1975. Richards said he shouldn’t have been taken to a psychiatric hospital just because he had depression and was from a violent home.
At Lake Alice he was given electro-convulsive therapy, including to his genitalia. He was pumped full of drugs and suspects he was raped.
He recalled nurses “every so often” saying of someone given electro-convulsive therapy: “He didn’t make it.”
Royal Commission chairwoman Judge Coral Shaw asked what he meant and Richards said he’d been told children had died.
Richards said he suffered from memory problems that affected his working life. He found out in the mid-1990s that Lake Alice had closed and that felt like a weight lifted off his shoulders, because he couldn’t be taken back.
Richards had been in a stable relationship for 19 years, but continued to be stressed and suffered from nightmares.
His fight for justice hadn’t relented.
He was part of the Cameron legal settlement and was given $60,000, although he only received about $35,000 after legal fees.
Richards first made a police complaint about Leeks in the early 1980s, but wasn’t taken seriously.
“The policeman never took my statement,” Richards said of his visit to the Hastings police station. “He told me I was a troublemaker and these things didn't happen in New Zealand. He threatened me with arrest for wasting police time.”
Cameron told those part of the class action to make police complaints about Leeks in the early 2000s, but to his disappointment Richards was too unwell.
Later that decade survivors made another push to see Leeks charged.
“We lobbied to get the matter reopened and were very hopeful. It was bitterly disappointing that the police were not going to charge Dr Leeks with cruelty to a child because there was insufficient evidence.”
Richards didn’t give up, lobbying politicians for an inquiry and continuing to complain to police.
Richards wanted to take a private prosecution against Leeks, but couldn’t find a lawyer to help him. He is awaiting a decision about his claim to the United Nations Committee Against Torture.
The inquiry continues.