|
|
Allegations of Abuse
in Institutions |
|
|
|
|
Police say calls to extradite a former
head of Lake Alice psychiatric hospital from Australia to face charges in New
Zealand are premature. "It is far too early to talk
about extradition," the officer heading the inquiry, Christchurch-based
Detective Superintendent Malcolm Burgess, said yesterday. There have been calls from some
former Lake Alice patients for psychiatrist Selwyn Leeks to be extradited to
face charges of abusing patients at the hospital's adolescent unit, which
closed in 1978. Dr Leeks was due to appear before
a disciplinary panel of the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria in
Melbourne this month on 16 charges of professional misconduct relating to his
time at Lake Alice. But last week he surrendered his
medical licence and gave the board an undertaking that he would stop
practising any form of medicine, effectively rendering the disciplinary
process unnecessary. Mr Burgess said a police
investigation in New Zealand is still in the preliminary stages. "We are talking to people and
studying records from 30 years ago to see what form any inquiry could
take." Dr Leeks was head of the Lake
Alice child and adolescent unit between 1972 and 1977 when staff are alleged
to have abused many of their young charges. Now in his mid-70s, he has been
living and practising in Australia in recent years and is considered central
to any inquiry in New Zealand. Mr Burgess said several former
patients had come forward in the last two or three months, but police are
keen to speak to more. There are difficulties in looking back
30 years, not the least of which is recovering records and nursing notes, he
said. Some of the staff members who
would have been helpful to the investigation have died and the memories of
many of the patients are not as precise as they once might have been. He said former patients who are
uncertain about testifying can contact the Government's confidential forum
for former psychiatric inpatients at 0800-225590 and discuss their concerns
in private before deciding whether to approach the police. "What we have now is a
preliminary investigation in which we are reviewing available evidence - new
and old - to see if we can add one to the other and determine the type of
inquiry we might conduct," he said. Among those to call for the
extradition of Dr Leeks this week were Citizens Commission on Human Rights
chief executive Steve Green and Sharyn Collis, a Manawatu woman who is a
former Lake Alice patient. Children are alleged to have been
tortured with electric shock treatment and drugs that caused extreme
localised pain. Others were locked in a dryer room until they passed out. |
