Criminal charges filed against former Lake Alice staff member

Wednesday, 8 December 2021

Over seven podcast episodes, journalist Aaron Smale talks to survivors of Lake Alice - like Tyrone Marks - as well as former staff, and goes in search of the psychiatrist who oversaw the experimental therapies at Lake Alice, Dr Selwyn Leeks.

Operation Lake Alice, the police investigation into allegations of ill-treatment involving children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital in the 1970s, has concluded with criminal charges filed against a former staff member.

An 89-year-old individual has been charged with wilful ill treatment of a child (section 195 of the Crimes Act 1961). They are expected to appear in Whanganui District Court on December 14, 2021.

Lake Alice lead psychiatrist Dr Selwyn Leeks will escape prosecution however, despite police finding enough evidence to lay criminal charges against him.

In an email to survivors, police explained that Leeks won’t be formally charged because his ill health and dementia make him unfit to stand trial.

Dr Selwyn Leeks was the lead psychiatrist at Lake Alice's child and adolescent unit.

* Lake Alice: After two failed police investigations, will a third be any better?

* The Lake: What happened to the children of Lake Alice was the beginning of a shameful story

Leeks was in charge of the adolescent unit at Lake Alice between 1972 and 1978, and was the subject of numerous allegations of abuse and torture for decades, particularly the use of electric shocks on children as punishment and sexual abuse by adult patients and staff.

Royal Commission of Inquiry witness Rangi Wickliffe talks about his time at Lake Alice as a 10 year old. (First published June 2021)

One other former staff member who is also in his 90s won’t be charged because of ill health. Evidence was also found against other former staff who are dead.

Survivor Leoni McInroe was contacted by police and told the news on Wednesday morning. McInroe was the first to take civil action against the Crown in the early 1990s but Crown Law repeatedly delayed her case over nine years.

“[They have found] overwhelming evidence to criminally charge Dr Leeks. But it can’t happen because he is dying and he has got dementia and he would have to be extradited. It just won’t happen. There are a number of ex-staff that there was also evidence for criminal charges. But they have died,” she said.

“The police have gone through over 48,000 documents. He [Leeks] should have been charged 40 years ago.

“The Crown protected him. The Crown jumped in and protected him because of what it would have meant for them if he had been found guilty.

“The Crown has denied this justice. The Crown has denied our justice. And what are they going to do about that? Because this sits squarely on their shoulders.”

McInroe says she wants to know what the criminal charges would have been.

Rangi Wickliffe, who was one of the first children that went into the unit, says the delays have cost survivors the chance at justice.

“The evidence was always there but they f….. around on it for too long.”

He also said it was not just Leeks who was responsible.

“Never mind Dr Leeks, he is just the stuffed turkey given to the public for public opinion. It does not exonerate the Crown and the lawyers and everyone else that has been bulls……. around on it. It does not exonerate them. If anything it makes them look like a pack of idiots.”

Survivor Tyrone Marks said: “Someone has to go for obstruction of justice. That sorry bulls… is bulls….”

The now closed Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital.

Detective Superintendent Tom Fitzgerald said the conclusion of the investigation was an important milestone for complainants, which was why police first shared the news with them before a public release.

“Police acknowledge the enormous impact these events have had on the lives of those former patients who were children and young people at Lake Alice in the 1970s, and the frustration of those who have been waiting for us to complete this investigation,” Fitzgerald said.

“This operation involved unprecedented mass allegations, with complex legal arguments and expert medical evidence, so it was vital that we undertook a methodical and meticulous approach with thorough consideration of culpability.”

This investigation began in February 2020.

Fitzgerald apologised to survivors during the hearing on Lake Alice at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State Care in June. Among the failures he apologised for was the loss of 15 of the 35 complaints from victims.

Lake Alice was previously the subject of police investigations in 1977 and between 2002 and 2010. In both those investigations, the police said there was not enough evidence to lay charges.

However, a complaint to the United Nations found that the New Zealand state had not conducted a thorough investigation and was in breach of the UN’s Convention Against Torture.

The UN’s finding caused the police to open this third investigation.

Survivor advocate Mike Ferriss of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights said the decision had taken far too long but was some vindication of what survivors had been saying for decades.

“It vindicates the effort put in to get it this far, to say yes, what happened there was criminal. It begs the question of why this did not happen earlier. Survivors always knew it was criminal.”

Leeks’ lawyer, Hayden Rattray, argued at the royal commission that natural justice should prevent the commission from making adverse findings against his client because of his dementia. The royal commission recently rejected that argument, saying Leeks had ample opportunity over decades to respond to the allegations.