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.