Lake Alice public hearing: 16 June witness list and evidence summaries
The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit public hearing continues today in Auckland.
Commissioners will hear from a number of witnesses. Witness evidence summaries are outlined below. Please note the earlier than usual start time.
After a witness speaks, their full evidence, along with footage of them speaking, will be available for download.
The hearing is being live-streamed on the Abuse in Care website.
Hearing location: Level 2, 414 Khyber Pass Road, Newmarket, Auckland 1023.
9.30am approx.
Kevin Banks (statement read by Counsel), survivor witness
Kevin Banks is a 62-year-old survivor of Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit. He spent 24 months in the Child and Adolescent Unit over three admissions between 1973 and 1975. He also spent time in Epuni Boys Home. While at Lake Alice he experienced sexual abuse, drug abuse, physical abuse, psychological abuse, solitary confinement, paraldehyde injections and electroconvulsive therapy as punishment. Mr Banks will give evidence about his complaints to the Department of Health, Medical Council and Police, efforts to expose Dr Leeks’ behaviour, and involvement in the redress process with Grant Cameron. He will also give evidence about the impact of his Lake Alice experience on his health and life.
Walton Ngatai-Mathieson (via pre-recorded video), survivor witness
Walton Ngatai-Mathieson is a survivor of the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit. He was born in Ruatoria and is of Ngāti Porou descent. From the age of five he was blind in one eye and partially blind in his other eye. At age nine he was sent away from home to attend Homai College and was taught braille. He developed epilepsy and it became difficult for his grandparents to look after him. He was sent to Gisborne Hospital before being transferred to Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit in 1972 at age 12. He was admitted twice to the Child and Adolescent Unit for approximately six weeks and later 12 months. Mr Ngatai-Mathieson gives evidence about his experiences and the abuse he suffered, both sexually and physically, while at the unit and other State institutions.
11.30am approx.
Bryon (Nic) Nicol, survivor witness
Bryon (Nic) Nicol is a 59-year-old man of European descent. He spent six months in the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit in 1973. While there, he experienced sexual and psychological abuse, and electroconvulsive therapy as punishment. Mr Nicol will give evidence about the abuse he suffered at Lake Alice, about the abuse he suffered at other State institutions for children, and about the lasting impacts of that abuse on his physical and mental health.
2pm approx.
Barry Parsonson
Dr Parsonson will provide an overview of the use of Aversion Therapy (including chemical and electrical aversive stimuli), Operant Punishment and Electroconvulsive Therapy in standard clinical practice. He will also present an analysis that he has undertaken on the treatment of 11 child and adolescent patients at Lake Alice and his opinion on the inconsistencies between the procedures that these patients were subjected to and the treatment standards at the time for the use of Aversion Therapy, Operant Punishment and ECT.
3.30pm approx.
Citizens Commission on Human Rights Incorporated
Mike Ferriss, Victor Boyd, and Bruce Gibson will be giving evidence on behalf of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR). CCHR is a private organisation and was co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr Thomas Szasz (a professor of psychiatry). It describes itself as “a non-political, non-religious, non-profit organisation dedicated solely to eradicating mental health abuse and enacting patient and consumer protections.” In the 1970s, CCHR was involved with complaints about the treatment of children at the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit. Mr Ferriss, Mr Boyd, and Mr Gibson will be giving evidence about their experiences of the complaints process regarding the child and adolescent unit in the 1970s and their involvement with investigations of the unit in the decades since including supporting a complaint to the United Nations Convention Against Torture.
Media enquiries: 027 298 2094; media@abuseincare.org.nz
About the Abuse in Care Inquiry
The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry is investigating the abuse and neglect that happened to children, young people and vulnerable adults in care from 1950 and 1999.