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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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The Government has paid
a second wave of former psychiatric patients about $47,000 each, on average,
in compensation for abuse they suffered at Lake Alice Hospital. The 88 who received the
$4.2 million were patients of the hospital's notorious child and adolescent
unit, run by psychiatrist Selwyn Leeks. The payout, revealed by
Health Minister Annette King in answers to parliamentary questions, is in
addition to the $6.5 million and Government apology in 2001 to 95 former
patients of the unit at the hospital near Wanganui. And it is separate from
the claims of more than 200 patients of other mental hospitals from Auckland
to Otago, mostly now closed, for alleged mistreatment in the 1960s and 1970s.
They are seeking up to $500,000 compensation each and exemplary damages
approaching $50,000. The former Lake Alice
patients, whose average age was 11 when at the hospital, said they were given
electric shock treatment or injections of a painful hypnotic-sedative drug,
paraldehyde, as punishment for misbehaviour in the clinic during Dr Leeks'
tenure from 1972 to 1977. The Government
appointed retired High Court judge Sir Rodney Gallen to divide up the
compensation among claimants. His report revealed
that as well as "therapy" as punishment, the children were locked
away with insane adults and subjected to sexual abuse. He read their
statements and interviewed a number of claimants. " ... I am
satisfied that in the main the allegations which have been made are true and
reveal an appalling situation. Statement after statement, in many cases
confirmed on interview, refer to systems, patterns of behaviour, punishments
inflicted and a way of life imposed which I have no doubt was established and
enforced by those in authority." While the payouts vary
depending on the level of abuse suffered, the second wave of claimants, on
average, received 30 per cent less than the first. A Health Ministry
spokesman said last night that was because the first group had to pay about
$2.3 million to their lawyers. The second group was
offered legal representation by David Collins QC, paid for by the Government. "It was designed
to ensure that people, whether or not they took legal claims - first or
second round - were, as much as possible, treated equitably in the net
amounts received. "If the Crown had
paid second-round applicants an amount for legal fees they did not need to
pay, then legal claimants could be seen to be significantly financially
disadvantaged." However, former patient
Paul Zentveld told the Herald he was upset that his compensation was reduced
to $80,000, from the $114,000 determined by Sir Rodney. He is suing the Crown
for the rest. The Auckland engineer,
now aged 43, was in and out of Lake Alice for five years. He said he was
"like a zombie" on the medication they needlessly gave him, and had
paraldehyde and 92 sessions of shock therapy. "They locked me up
for five days and nights in a darkened room - solitary confinement," the
former patient said. "That's what I
call torture." He had never had a
mental illness but was put in the hospital by his mother because she found
his behaviour difficult. |
