DR SELWYN LEEKS LET OFF

A child psychiatrist who used electric-shock therapy and pain-inducing injections to punish children as young as eight, and who allegedly fondled and requested sexual acts from one of his patients, will not face any charges.

Dr Selwyn Leeks agreed to stop practising, on the eve of hearings by the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria into his use of “aversion therapy” on young children in the 1970s. Dr Leeks is 77 years old, well past the normal male retirement age of 65.

The board had been investigating Dr Leeks for seven years. Last week it wrote to the complainants, saying that after receiving Dr Leeks’ undertaking, it had decided not to proceed with a formal hearing into his professional conduct.

Earlier, it had decided to formally investigate complaints from 16 of the 50 people who had provided statements about the psychiatrist.

The move has outraged his victims, many of whom have waited years for their day in court. Most were children aged between eight and 16 when they were given the shock treatment.

They were sent to New Zealand’s Lake Alice Hospital, where Dr Leeks ran the child and adolescent unit, after welfare authorities decided they were too difficult to manage.

They say they were punished for minor breaches of discipline by electroconvulsive therapy, administered by Dr Leeks, and with pain-inducing injections.

Victim Kevin Banks said of the medical board’s decision: “He has stuffed up so many lives. This is just terrible and very upsetting.”

Sharyn Collis, who was in Lake Alice Hospital in 1973 and 1974, said “this is a kick in the teeth. We just want someone to be accountable for this.”

New Zealand police are reviewing complaints from 34 of Dr Leeks’ former “patients” to determine whether criminal charges can be considered.

Another complainant, who does not wish to be identified, claims that Dr Leeks fondled her and requested sexual acts in 1979 and 1980. After a preliminary examination, the medical board determined to conduct a formal inquiry into the claims, but this is unlikely to proceed.

The woman said: “The cowardice and arrogance of the man is unbelievable.”

Almost 100 former Lake Alice Hospital patients shared $NZ6.5 million in compensation and received a public apology from NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark in settlement of a class action in 2001. No action was taken against Dr Leeks.

An inquiry by retired New Zealand High Court judge Sir Rodney Gallen found that the Lake Alice children were controlled by “aversion therapy”.

They were given unmodified (that is, with no anaesthetic or muscle relaxant) electroconvulsive therapy to their heads, legs and even genitals as a punishment. The patients lived in a state of “extreme fear and hopelessness”, Sir Rodney said.

“Statement after statement indicates that the children concerned lived in a state of terror during the period they spent at Lake Alice. All were in need of understanding, love and compassionate care. That is not what they received.”

Giving ECT to defenceless children was “outrageous in the extreme”. He said it “was plainly delivered as a means of inflicting pain in order to coerce behaviour”.

Sir Rodney said children were required to assist bringing the ECT machine into the room where it was used and at times watched it being administered to other patients. “Claimant after claimant speaks of the screaming which was plainly audible to other children in the unit when ECT was administered,” he said.

Dr Leeks established the 46-bed child and adolescent unit at Lake Alice Hospital in 1972. He moved to Australia in 1978 after two inquiries into his use of ECT. One investigation found that a boy of 15 was given unmodified electric shocks against his will and without the knowledge of his parents or welfare officers. It found the boy had been dealt a grave injustice and that the treatment “may have been contrary to law”.

When Dr Leeks came to Melbourne in 1978, he was made director of child psychiatry at a child guidance clinic. From 1982 to 1984 he lived in Canada. He returned to Melbourne in 1984 to establish a private practice in Cheltenham. In 1986, he worked as a part-time psychiatrist at the Children’s Court outpatients’ clinic.

(Source: The Age)