Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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Former New Zealand
psychiatrist Dr Selwyn Leeks has been ordered to pay $55,000 in damages for
sexually abusing a former patient. The payment was ordered
by an Australian court which found that Dr Leeks "took advantage ... of
a disturbed psychiatric patient". The 77-year-old is also
being investigated by New Zealand police over claims by former child and
youth patients that he abused them at Lake Alice Hospital near Wanganui in
the 1970s. He escaped a
potentially damning disciplinary hearing before the Medical Practitioners
Board of Victoria last month by effectively surrendering his medical licence
in return for the case being shelved. A five-year
investigation into complaints from 50 former Lake Alice patients found a case
of unprofessional conduct to answer in 16 of them. Dr Leeks, who left New
Zealand in the late 1970s, is accused of punishing patients with electric
shock therapy. The sexual abuse claim
was heard as a civil case in the Victoria County Court. Judge Jim Duggan said
in his verdict: "I conclude that a senior and well-credentialled
psychiatrist took advantage of the vulnerability of a disturbed psychiatric
patient for the purposes of sexual gratification." He awarded the woman
$55,000 damages. Dr Leeks said he had no
recollection of the woman, and denied any sexual impropriety. The Australian woman, who
has had depression and anxiety and is now aged 54, claimed Dr Leeks fondled
her breasts and put his finger into her vagina during consultations in 1979
or 1980. She said that when she
stopped her visits, he urged her not to disclose what he had done, telling
her: "You're a long-term psychiatric patient and no one will believe
you." The judge said she made
complaints to the police and the medical board, but "these were not
taken any further". The board's spokeswoman
said yesterday its investigation had been halted by the court case, but it
would now consider the judge's ruling in deciding what action to take. Steve Green, executive
director of the anti-psychiatry group Citizens Commission on Human Rights NZ,
said Judge Duggan's ruling was the first public, official finding of
wrongdoing by Dr Leeks. Mr Green said his group was helping 10 more former
patients prepare complaints. The Government has
apologised to 183 former Lake Alice patients and paid them $10.7 million
compensation. |