|
|
Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
|
|
|
|
A former patient of the
notorious Lake Alice psychiatric hospital near Wanganui has won an increase of
more than $34,000 in his payout. Aucklander Paul
Zentveld, 45, has won the top-up in a ruling in which the judge criticises
the Crown's position as "Kafkaesque". Mr Zentveld describes
his time in the hospital's child and adolescent unit, spread over five years
in the 1970s, as amounting to torture. The unit closed in 1977. He said he was punished
with painful paraldehyde injections and 92 sessions of electric shock therapy
and, like many of the young patients, did not have a mental illness. "They locked me up
for five days and nights in a darkened room - solitary confinement." He is among 183 former
patients of the unit to receive from the Government an apology and a share of
$10.7 million compensation, divvied up by retired High Court judge Sir Rodney
Gallen after considering their evidence of mistreatment. Their claims included
receiving ECT and injections as punishment, sexual abuse, ECT on the genitals
in several cases, and one of being locked in a cage with a deranged adult. Mr Zentveld was given
$80,438.60 in 2002, but has successfully sued the Crown for an extra
$34,473.68 - plus four years' interest and costs - bringing his compensation
to $114,912.28. This is the sum Sir
Rodney, who considered Mr Zentveld's experiences at the unit among the worst
he had heard of, had set for him. The Health Ministry
subsequently sliced off 30 per cent. Mr Zentveld and 87 other people with
whom the ministry dealt as a second round of claimants received, on average,
30 per cent less than the 95 first-round claimants in 2001. The ministry did
this, it said previously, to preserve equity between the two groups. Around $2.17 million of
the $6.5 million paid to the first-round claimants went to their law firm
Grant Cameron & Associates in fees and disbursements, according to the
Wellington District Court verdict on Mr Zentveld's case, released yesterday. For the second-round
claimants, the ministry appointed David Collins, QC, to assist Sir Rodney and
the claimants. Cabinet accordingly decided to slice 30 per cent off the gross
compensation, said Judge Tom Broadmore. The ministry wanted Sir
Rodney to make the deductions, but his instructions appear to have been
unclear and as a result of a misunderstanding he did not make them. "It seems clear
that [Mr Zentveld] knew that he would not have to pay legal fees because Dr
Collins' fees would be paid by the Government," Judge Broadmore says. "But it is far
from clear that he understood that the Government intended ... that the level
of net settlements with [second-round] claimants would be lower than for
comparable cases [in round one]." The ministry, when
asked last night whether it would appeal or make proportional top-up payments
to other second-round claimants, declined to comment. It needed time to
analyse the decision, a spokeswoman said. Mr Zentveld also
declined to comment, but his lawyer, Mr Cameron, said his client was
"very pleased". |
