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Accusations of Abuse in
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The Dominion
March 13, 2002
25 former patients claim abuse
by Fran Tyler
The list of former
An article published in The Dominion on Monday detailing
plans by a group of former patients to sue the Crown about their treatment had
prompted a flood of calls,
Ms Cooper and Nelson-based lawyer Jane Hunter are
acting for the patients, who allege they were sexually, physically and
emotionally abused, subjected to electroconvulsive therapy (shock treatment) -
sometimes without anaesthetic - and given painful injections of the drug
paraldehyde as a punishment.
Ms Hunter said the huge response had confirmed what
they thought. "There are a lot of people out there who felt their
treatment was inappropriate and abusive.
"I think it's important that if people have a
grievance that it is dealt with. It is good they have been able to come
forward."
She expected more people would come forward now they
knew they would have support.
Ms Cooper said almost all those who had phoned in had
been patients at the hospital during the 1960s or 1970s as children, and had
remarkably similar stories.
One man, who contacted The Dominion, said he had been
a patient at Porirua when he was 15 years old. He said he had suffered abuse
and had been left permanently injured from shock treatment.
Another, a woman who had been admitted when 11, said
the revelations about other patients' treatment had brought back a flood of
terrible memories. She believed it was time to hold someone accountable.
Ms Cooper and Ms Hunter planned to interview those who
had contacted them, next week.
Meanwhile, former child patients of
Grant Cameron, the lawyer who spearheaded the
compensation claim, said the criminal complaints were similar to the civil
complaints.
" . . . mainly that there's been unlawful
applications of ECT, unlawful drug injections, a range of sexual abuse,
physical assaults and unlawful confinement."
He said last year that Dr Leeks, who lived and worked
in