Electro-shock doc loses sex case appeal

The Dominion Post | Friday, 14 March 08

 Former Lake Alice Hospital psychiatrist Selwyn Leeks has lost an appeal in Australia against a $55,000 damages payout to a patient who says she was sexually assaulted by him. Leeks headed the Rangitikei hospital's child and adolescent unit, which closed in the late 1970s, before heading to Australia to continue practising. He was accused of punishing patients at Lake Alice with electric shocks (ECT) and painful drug injections. Other staff have been accused of sexually abusing patients. In 2001, after a lengthy investigation, the Government gave apologies and compensation to a group of former patients of the unit. It later extended these to a second group, bringing to $10.7 million the total paid to 183 people. The Melbourne Age newspaper reported that the Victorian Court of Appeal dismissed Leeks' appeal last week against a civil prosecution there from an alleged sexual assault victim. The woman said in 1979 and 1980 she endured Leeks undressing her, touching and licking her breasts and digitally penetrating her. At the time the woman, a mother of two children, was a psychiatric patient with a history of physical and sexual abuse. Leeks denies he abused any patients. Another Australian newspaper said it had spoken to a different woman who alleges she was abused by Leeks. A large number of former Lake Alice patients, aided by lawyers, are still pursuing ways to seek justice against Leeks and other staff. Citizens Commission on Human Rights executive director Steve Green told NZPA today those seeking justice felt they were being obstructed when trying to further their cases through police and government. "They can't really get any closure until there is some accountability," Mr Green said. He said patients would have taken heart from the civil Victorian case against Leeks and would continue to investigate. There have also been calls for Leeks to be extradited from Australia. Detective Superintendent Malcolm Burgess of the New Zealand Police said today there were no immediate plans for police here to push for Leeks' extradition, but the file was "still under active consideration".

so more children harmed due to the failure of the NZ Govt to press charges when complaints made but no too gutless had to cover it up and accuse the children of being mentally unwell and unstable so unreliable witnesses .

Call For Lake Alice Victims To Take Further Action

Thursday, 6 December 2001, 10:22 am

Press Release: Unknown

MEDIA RELEASE

For Immediate Release

6 December 2001

Psychiatrists Call On Lake Alice Victims To Take Further Action

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) is encouraging anyone who was adversely affected by treatment received as a patient of the Adolescent Unit at Lake Alice Hospital in the 1970s to lodge a complaint with either the Medical Council of New Zealand or the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria.

“As a profession, we are not prepared to stand by while such horrific allegations of abuse and torture are associated with our specialty. We are determined to have this matter resolved, once and for all,” Craig Glenroy Patterson, Executive Director of the RANZCP said.

“The Prime Minister and Health Minister in New Zealand have seen fit to apologise to and to compensate the former ‘patients’ of the service operated by Dr Leeks. And yet, despite everything they have been through and all the allegations being made publicly about their experiences, no investigation into the role played by this doctor in the alleged practices has been successfully completed.”

“The Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria and the Medical Council of New Zealand are now the only bodies with the power to investigate these allegations and, if necessary, to act to prevent this doctor from continuing to practise.”

“It is clear to us now that the only way that justice will be served in relation to the alleged clinical practice of Dr Leeks is if the former ‘patients’ at Lake Alice make their cases to the statutory authorities,” Mr Patterson said.

“We urge anyone in a position to do so to come forward to the statutory bodies and lodge a complaint.”

“This is the only way we will ever achieve a satisfactory resolution to this matter; for the former ‘patients’ first and foremost, but also for the doctor concerned and for the profession.”

“The College demands of its members the highest possible ethical and clinical standards and will do all that is legally possible to ensure that these standards are upheld.”

- end -

© Scoop Media

Probe on shock doctor claims

July 11 2003

By Padraic Murphy
Police Reporter

A Melbourne psychiatrist who oversaw the punishment of children with electric-shock therapy at a New Zealand hospital 30 years ago could be struck off after the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria yesterday decided to investigate his conduct.

Cheltenham psychiatrist Dr Selwyn Leeks, 74, is alleged to have allowed children to be punished with electric-shock treatment from 1972 to 1977 when he headed the now-closed child and adolescent unit at the Lake Alice psychiatric hospital on NZ's North Island.

In 2001 the New Zealand Government formally apologised and paid millions of dollars in compensation to 95 former patients of the hospital.

Most of the patients were children in the 1970s who were admitted to the hospital because of behavioural difficulties. An inquiry in 1997 found they were subjected to various forms of punishment including electroconvulsive therapy, locked away with adult patients, or given painful injections of the sedative paraldehyde.

The Age has confirmed that Victorian police are also investigating claims made by several patients treated by Dr Leeks after he moved to Australia.

Dr Leeks moved to Australia in 1977 after he was criticised in a preliminary inquiry into practices at the hospital. He has practised across Melbourne specialising in child psychiatry, most recently from offices in Cheltenham.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists has campaigned for the medical board to investigate since The Age revealed Dr Leeks's past in 1999. The board received legal advice this week that it has jurisdiction to investigate the claims and to assess whether Dr Leeks is fit to practise in Victoria.

Difficulty in accessing files from New Zealand means a formal inquiry is unlikely before next year.

A college spokeswoman, Angela Hill, said: "The college categorically condemns the practices alleged to have taken place at Lake Alice, particularly the use of injections of paraldehyde and electric shocks for the purpose of modifying behaviour."

Dr Leeks did not return phone calls yesterday.

Lake Alice doctor pre-empts tribunal

By Martin Johnston

2:44 AM Friday Jul 21, 2006Dr Selwyn Leeks, the psychiatrist accused of mistreating young patients at Lake Alice Hospital in the 1970s, has effectively handed in his medical licence, on the eve of a potentially damning disciplinary hearing.

The elderly doctor, who had been practising in Melbourne, was to go before a disciplinary panel, accused of unprofessional conduct.

If he had been found guilty his medical registration could have been revoked.

The hearing by the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria panel was to start on Wednesday.

A five-year investigation of complaints from 50 former patients found a case to answer in respect of 16.

But on Tuesday Dr Leeks, who is in his mid-70s, gave the board an undertaking that he would stop practising any form of medicine.

Board spokeswoman Nicole Newton said last night this was effectively an international ban because to be registered elsewhere Dr Leeks would need a certificate of good standing from the Victorian board.

If he tried to resume practising, the hearing would be re-activated.

Dr Leeks, who could not be contacted last night, headed the hospital's child and adolescent unit, which closed in the late 1970s.

In 2001, the Government gave apologies and compensation to a group of former patients of the unit. It later extended 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.

One of the complainants, a 45-year-old Auckland man, was last night jubilant, but would have preferred Dr Leeks to go through the hearing.

The boys have been waiting nearly 30 years for this," said the man - who asked not to be named - in a reference to former patients.

He was admitted to Lake Alice, near Wanganui, several times between the ages of 11 and 16.

He was repeatedly punished with electro-convulsive therapy, painful drugs and solitary confinement for offences such as running away, throwing apples "and other boyish pranks".

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights, an anti-psychiatry group which uncovered abuses at Lake Alice in 1976 and has been helping with investigations since, said Dr Leeks had found an easy way out of the hearings after his "reign of terror on around 400 children, possibly as young as 4".

"This is the first time in nearly 30 years that so much evidence has been amassed in one place, including statements from victims and staff testifying to the brutality and fear they endured under Dr Leeks," said executive director Steve Green.

"It is up to the New Zealand police to see that justice is done for the victims of Lake Alice.

"Thirty-three people have filed criminal complaints so far."

The police are reviewing the complaints.