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The Press
May 22, 2004
Abuse claims untrue - doctor
by Jarrod Booker
A former
Christchurch doctor accused of tearing apart families with misdiagnosis of
sexual abuse says the claims have taken a heavy toll on her.
Dr Dianne Espie, who identified symptoms of sexual abuse in girls at Christchurch's Glenelg
Health Camp from the late 1980s, has been accused of using methods "that
can only be described as sexual abuse" by ACT MP Deborah Coddington.
Speaking publicly for the first time about the accusations, Espie told The
Press they were "very distressing" and "totally untrue".
"I don't know what Deborah Coddington's agenda is," she said.
"I don't know where it will end. It's been terribly traumatic both for
my family and myself."
Espie, who has not practised in the health field since 1995, said she only
ever had good intentions.
"I felt that I was acting in their best interests (of the children) and
reporting what they wanted to say, and protecting them. And we gave the
information to the relevant authorities at the time," she said.
"I wish (now) I had never worked in child protection. But that's a
cowardly view, isn't it? I mean, someone has got to do it. I was a pioneer in
the area and I thought we would be listened to in the right way but we
haven't been."
The sexual abuse of the girls was never for her to prove.
"I gave my evidence to the Family Court, and so did the police and the
social worker, and the child psychiatrist, and the Family Court judge made
that ruling, I didn't," Espie said.
"Other people have interviewed the children ... (Dr) Karen Zelas
interviewed the children and she found the same diagnosis."
Espie said the allegations of her committing sexual abuse and misdiagnosing had
been put to the Medical Council.
She said that by 1997 she had been cleared of three complaints of
misdiagnosis, while an accusation of abuse had been dropped.
Trevor Gibling, a Christchurch
father accused of sexual abuse after Espie examined his daughter, Carolynne,
at Glenelg in 1987, claimed Espie had ignored his daughter's denials of any
abuse.
But Espie responded: "I was asked by the social worker after Carolynne
was taken in to foster care – she wouldn't talk to anyone else, they said,
and the only person she trusted and would talk to was me. She said it was the
father (abusing her) and she indicated how this abuse had happened, and
that's what I passed on to Social Welfare."
Espie said she was still on the medical register, despite claims to the
contrary.
But she had not worked in the health field since 1995, opting for a new life
in picturesque rural Otago.
"I chose my personal life ahead of my medical life."
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