by Graphic content warning:
A man was held down by four staff members and shocked with electricity when he was 13 years old at a Rangitkei psychiatric institution.
The Royal Commission’s Abuse in Care Inquiry is investigating what happened at the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit, which operated from 1972 until 1978, near Marton.
Hakeagapuletama Halo said, on day one of a two-week public hearing in Auckland, that the shocks felt like a sledgehammer and his body was jolted upright from lying down.
The 58-year-old gave the commissioners a journal that detailed his experiences of abuse at Lake Alice, including electro-convulsive therapy and sedative injections.
READ MORE:* Abuse inquiry to shine spotlight on the horrors of Lake Alice child and adolescent unit * Abuse inquiry uncovers at least 100 more Lake Alice patients* Royal Commission: Solicitor General denies lengthy legal action used to wear down survivors
The present-day view of where Lake Alice psychiatric hospital stood from the 1950s to the 1990s.
By holding this journal in your hands, I hope you will get a sense of the effect Lake Alice has had on me.
Halo was born in Niue and raised by his grandparents.
He came to New Zealand aged 6 and did not speak English. He was transferred between schools but unable to understand, he was labelled handicapped and violent.
He moved in with his birth parents when they arrived in the country and left school at 12.
He went to youth court for shoplifting and the judge admitted him to Owairaka Boys Home in Auckland in 1975 before he was transferred to Lake Alice at 13 years old.
Halo said he received electric shocks the first time he met Dr Selwyn Leeks.
Leeks lawyer, Hayden Rattray, appeared at the hearing on Monday and said Leeks was 92 years old, had cancer, heart disease, kidney dysfunction, Alzheimers Disease and dementia.
Rattray said the former doctor was unable to understand proceedings and was incapable of responding to accusations.
Halo said Leeks and three staff members would put him on a bed, a mouthguard in his mouth and electrodes on his head.
The courtyard at the now demolished Lake Alice Psychiatric hospital, where there was a child and adolescent unit.
Halo said the first time he received the shocks, he was knocked unconscious.
He was not given any muscle relaxant or anaesthetic and staff held him down.
I would always be conscious and feel the sledgehammer-like pain of the shocks repeatedly forcing my body up, and then falling down on the bed again.
I would be crying my eyes out and begging them, telling them I did not want it, but still Dr Leeks would give it to me. He did not seem to care. He was a man full of hatred.
Halo said the after-effects were headaches, loss of memory, anger and fear.
He received paraldehyde injections, a sedative for bad behaviour, in his bottom, which he said felt like having a burning steel bar up your backside’.
Instead of staff using their hands, they would use paraldehyde to protect themselves from allegations of assault.
He said he received the injections every week and was once given it for laughing too loud.
When Halo went home for Christmas, his sister was murdered by her boyfriend in the bedroom next door.
He was the first to find her, still holding her baby, who was alive.
He was returned to Lake Alice in February 1976. He received more shock treatment before being released later that year, aged 14.
Halo had epilepsy as a child and although he grew out of it, the seizures returned after his release.
Catherine Groenestein/Stuff
Nursing supervisor Frank Veuger closes a barred door at Lake Alice on October 10, 1987.
A family member invited him to church and he was now an elder there.
My faith and my church helped me with my recovery, and still help me today.
I think I would have had a normal life, if I had not been to Lake Alice.
Halo said his personal relationships suffered and he was unable to maintain employment.
He participated in the 1977 Mitchell Inquiry and talked at a Citizens Commission on Human Rights investigation.
He received $76,023 in compensation but was given only $40,000 after legal fees were taken.
They cannot say they were unaware.
Dr Oliver Sutherland said the New Zealand Government knew what was happening at the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit.
Sutherland was the spokesman for the Auckland Committee on Racism and Discrimination in 1976, who spoke out alongside 13-year-old Halo and his grandmother, other children, psychologists, journalists, and the Ombudsman.
They cannot say they were unaware of the abuse, the punishment, the use of electric shock equipment on childrens legs to deliberately cause pain, and the allegations of torture.
The Auckland committee was formed for Pkeh to recognise the real cause of the difficulties faced by minority groups.
Sutherland was told about Halos case in 1976. He, at the time, had not heard of Lake Alice.
Dominion historic collection/Stuff
Lake Alice’s control room staff keep watch on the maximum security wing in November 17, 1971.
The committee rang the superintendent in charge of Carrington Hospital, Dr Fraser McDonald.
Sutherland said McDonald was surprised to hear that electro-convulsive therapy was being used on children under the age of 16.
Sutherland spoke to psychologist and lawyer at the New Zealand Psychological Society Michael Molloy, who was deeply concerned and said electric therapy should not be given to children so young.
He also sent a letter to the minister of social welfare with the details of Halos case, calling for a full inquiry into the circumstances.
He introduced Halo to a reporter and a news article was published, in which the minister rejected the claims but psychologists stepped in to voice their concerns.
The minister announced there would be a magisterial inquiry and commissioned William Mitchell.
Sutherland wrote to chief ombudsman Sir Guy Powles and said it was clear a full-scale inquiry at the unit was essential.
The final report acknowledged there was no express authority for electroconvulsive therapy from Halos family or the Department of Social Welfare.
Sutherland said the report exonerated the actions of officials and medical staff, and blamed Halos family for failing to look after him.
In my opinion Halos case exemplifies the worst elements of institutional racism prevalent in the 1960s and 1970s.
Manawatū Standard Archive/Stuff
Lake Alice Hospital maximum security unit on March 11, 1994.
He said the family’s encounters with police, education, social welfare and judicial systems for the next 10 years were characterised by misunderstandings and confusion.
This was classic institutionalised racism. It was a Pkeh system through and through.
Sutherland said another two families saw the news article about the report and approached him with experiences of their own boys.
Sutherland presented the allegations to the director of the mental health division, Dr Stanley Mirams. He demanded a full inquiry and asked that the institution be closed.
An Auckland lawyer and the district mental health inspector investigated the two allegations.
A few days later, Mirams said in an interview that the ECT machine had been taken away from the child and adolescent unit.
The Auckland committee called for a royal commission of inquiry and sent a letter to the health minister in August 1977.
The minister said there had been no previous allegations of torture and no evidence.
In August 1977, the chair of the New Zealand division said the shocks were aversion therapy, which was the use of discomfort to discourage unwanted behaviour.
The commissioner of police announced in 1978 there was no evidence of criminal misconduct.
The committee maintained that painful electric shocks were indefensible and a gross violation of the rights of a child.
The fact that the shocks were administered via a piece of electrical equipment designed to be used therapeutically, blurred the line between punishment and psychiatric treatment.
Forty-five years later, finally the time has come for the royal commission of inquiry to ask those questions and make findings into where accountability may lie.
It is never too late for justice.
Police officer unaware of shock treatment
Anthony Sutherland, formerly of the New Zealand Police, was a youth aid officer in Whanganui.
He visited the Holdsworth Boys Care Home and found out about a points system, where points were added and removed based on behaviour.
The points were controlled by the house masters and when boys had negative points they were sent to Lake Alice for treatment.
Sutherland said he was shocked that boys were sent to a psychiatric facility for punishment but was unaware of the shock treatment.
