Allegations of Abuse in
Institutions |
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Dr 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medical registration could have been revoked.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. |