Focus back on doctor after new child abuse claim

A group of former patients at Lake Alice Hospital were sexually abused, a judge's report revealed. Picture / Mark Mitchell

Psychiatrist Dr Selwyn Leeks' extradition to New Zealand has become an open question again, after a fresh complaint of child abuse was laid by a former patient.

Detective Superintendent Malcolm Burgess, from the Police Commissioner's office, said yesterday that he was reviewing complaints from former patients of the long-closed Lake Alice Hospital near Wanganui that they were abused by staff.

Dr Leeks, who is living in Australia, headed the hospital's child and adolescent unit, which closed in the 1970s.

Mr Burgess is reviewing 35 complaints, including one new one.

"I will assess that complaint on its merits and reach a conclusion as to whether further inquiry is warranted. I guess out of that will arise any consideration of whether Dr Leeks is required to come back here."

The Herald reported last September that the police had decided that they could not seek Dr Leeks' extradition to face prosecution because they had no evidence of criminal offending by him at Lake Alice.

The 45-year-old Auckland man who filed the new complaint was in and out of Lake Alice for five years during his teens.

He says he was "tortured" by painful injections, solitary confinement and electric shock therapy given as punishment. He did not have a mental illness but was put in hospital by his mother, who had found his behaviour difficult.

Dr Leeks could not be contacted last night in Melbourne, where he has been practising. The Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria is investigating complaints against him.

In parallel to both these inquiries, the Porirua police are investigating two child abuse complaints, from former patients of the old Porirua Hospital, against former staff members.

Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Oxnam said the complaints had been investigated and referred to legal advisers.

More than 300 former patients, including about 120 from Porirua, have alleged they were abused in the 1960s and 1970s at psychiatric hospitals from Auckland to Otago.

The Government has refused to hold an inquiry and around 80 civil cases have been filed in the High Court at Wellington. The claimants each want up to $500,000 compensation and exemplary damages approaching $50,000.

Some of the cases are going through preliminary hearings. The Crown is trying to have them struck out, so far unsuccessfully.

In 2001 the Government issued an apology and compensation to a group of former Lake Alice patients, later extending these to a second group, bringing to $10.7 million the total paid to 183 people.

This followed a report by retired judge Sir Rodney Gallen which revealed that as well as "therapy" as punishment, the Lake Alice claimants, whose average age was 11 when at the hospital, were subjected to sexual abuse and being locked up with adult patients.

Steve Green, the executive director of anti-psychiatry group Citizens Commission on Human Rights, last night encouraged the police to thoroughly assess the complaints and to read Sir Rodney's report. The group wanted to see Dr Leeks prosecuted, Mr Green said. "It's what the victims need for proper closure, that justice is seen to be done."