A retrospective report, incorporating historical investigative footage alongside modern updates, details the systemic abuse of children at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital in New Zealand during the 1970s. Under the direction of psychiatrist Dr. Selwyn Leeks, young patients in the child and adolescent unit were subjected to electroconvulsive therapy and painful injections of the paralyzing drug Scoline as methods of punishment rather than medical treatment. Decades after these practices occurred, a New Zealand Royal Commission of Inquiry formally recognized the treatment as torture, though key figures evaded criminal prosecution before their deaths. Survivors continue to speak out to ensure the events are officially acknowledged.
- The child and adolescent unit at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital in New Zealand operated under the authority of psychiatrist Dr. Selwyn Leeks during the 1970s.
- Young patients were subjected to unmodified electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on various parts of their bodies, including their heads and limbs, as a disciplinary measure.
- Staff administered the drug Scoline, which induces temporary paralysis and respiratory distress, to punish children for perceived misbehavior.
- The report features archival footage from original television investigations alongside interviews with adult survivors reflecting on their childhood experiences.
- A New Zealand Royal Commission of Inquiry officially concluded that the medical practices used at the unit constituted torture and a severe abuse of power.
- Key individuals responsible for the administration of the facility, including Dr. Leeks, died before facing formal criminal charges in court.
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Original video here.
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And in the late 1960s at Lake Alice Psychiatric hospital allegedly LSD was also used on patients.
Experiments during which far too much LSD was administered. It was a closed hospital so nobody knew the truth allegedly.
The people who were given LSD deserve damages/ compensation for mental damages at Lake Alice. Their records must found. Class action needs to be taken against Lake Alice Hospital/ Health Department.
Psychiatry, Youth detention.. these two things are our greatest shame. I have a post grad in psych and worked in psych for over a decade. Honestly there is NO science backing the entire field of psychiatry. Not the DSM or ICD, Not the drugs, not ECT, not Lobotomies.. its all fraud and NOT science. This entire field of "medicine" needs to be NO MORE. The entire field only harms people and no.. in 17 years of nursing I have seen nothing but crimes against humanity. No one was actually helped. Why does psychiatry not do medical workups ? Why not test for Lyme, Bartonella, or any other disease process – mold exposure even (Anything that creates cytokine storm). There is so much evidence to show psychiatry is a fraud. Doctors who become psychiatrists are quickly trapped in their own culture and incredible amount of debt to show how good they are to their piers. Anyone who has a conscience does not last long in psychiatry.
So Heartbreaking
I felt ill watching this I know someone who was given ECT and they didn't administer the anaesthetic properly and she felt everything and she described it the same way as that woman explained a sledge hammer pain she is now terrified to go to the doctors and have any sort of medical procedures😢 these poor people what was done to them was cruel and inhumane. Usually kids that are rebellious are being abused.
Sadistic bastards, they always target the vulnerable. Why isn’t he in prison or worse? Nice to see 60 minutes finally found their spine and turned the comment section on. Sue him, press charges, this man doesn’t deserve to see the light of day.
How can all these people say they were abused and no one goes to jail?! Wf
“Why are you shaking?” Really? Childhood trauma never goes away, have you not heard of arrested development syndrome? It stays with you and it affects every relationship you have going forward. You never learn to trust, sights, smells and sounds can trigger memories and pain you thought you forgot, everyday becomes a battle. Many usually try to self medicate so they stop feeling anything at all and that just adds to the problems. My question would be, “how do you stop shaking?” When the system and laws fail to protect victims, they breed vigilantes. That’s just a cold hard fact and who’s to blame? Politicians, judges, courts?
That ma SHOULD Be in JAIL
Thanks 60 minutes Australia. This is a excellent source for news online. I love Australia. You all have a backbone. Thanks
One Hundred Victims and only 6.5 million dollars. That's a crime it should have been much more to the Victims. Thanks 60 minutes.
Any child 14 + this can still happen too!
Started to watch this, a noticed the interviewer, being very condescending towards Debbie, at 4.07 asking why was she shaking, when being confronted at the place of abuse, than saying to her..Your a Adult Now ! I mean wtf, how would she even begin to know how she would feel.. this is horrendous treatment, one that may never go..im disgusted in the reporter…thats Abuse in itself !
It’s still going on !! The staff need to stop following orders !!
Police need to stop taking people to psychiatric wards to be forcefully drugged !! That’s not care & treatment.. it’s torture! It’s a crime . It’s unlawful to force medical procedures & inject neurotoxins & poison into people!!
Wonder why it’s no jab , no job ? Thank those who follow orders . U now get a taste of your own medicine!! 😢
This place should be burnt to the ground
My mum stayed for few weeks back late 70s, early 80s, but mums ex, my 1/2 sisters dad stayed there for a while back late 70s, maybe earlier and early 80s but probably longer, he was there backwards and forwards i think through maybe 60s to 80s, he had schizophrenia. He use to swear and yell at himself and smash himself and whatever else but I was too young then to remember too much. He had like 20 different voices inside his head. We lived in whanganui back in the late 70s, to mid 80s. My real dad could of possibly gone there too but think he went to a mental place in Wellington or something when he had a major breakdown back in the 50s and 60s.
😪😪😪😪
How is it that the psychiatrist is still out of jail?
This is so heartbreaking 😢😢😢
❤For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life John 3:16 repent and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation❤
These monsters must be stopped. Hopefully they will be judged in the next life, if not in this! Prayers for all the victims / survivors. God Bless them!!
This is horrific.
I believe in God's Justice. We die and then we're held accountable. He didn't get away with it😢
Poor kids at that time. Dr Looks should be in prison for rest of his life.
TRAGIC!!! ABSOLUTELY DESPICABLE! THAT MAN..MAY HE ROT IN A SINISTER HELL!!!!
Most heads of psych hospitals etc write medical papers. Those papers may be included in medical journals as scientific evidence. Hopefully anything this man wrote or published will be destroyed.
I listened to the whole podcast series put together by David Soma as I was mending post surgery. To say that I was horrified is the understatement of the century. Dr Selwyn Leeks is sadistic, state sanctioned animal. I met a woman who told a group of us that she was sent to Lake Alice to do her nursing training all of those years ago as a 21 year old. She was horrified with seeing patients injected with formaldihide and she was transferred out for speaking up about it. State sanctioned torture.
Sham on new Zealand government for horror bad 😞😞😞😞😞
serious !!!! ge still practices .. my god .. what a horrid government to allow that.. U smack a child lightly on the bottom ya get prison.. and a doctor can get off this.. my goodness
We are not the children of rather the hostages of , thus we don’t enjoy cildhood but endure, and further then have cptsd flashbacks and triggers you don’t know you have and further diminish our self esteem for life! Poor buggers. Be strong and have courage to live.🙏🏻☯️❤️🩹
I don't mean to be cynical, but why am I not surprised. It seems to me that most people who were born before the mid 70's were brought up on far right wing 'family values'. When they grew up, the assumed that any child who wasn't blindly obedient was seen as a problem. If they were wards of the state, the Older People assumed that they must have done something to deserve the abuse/neglect their parents inflicted on them. When the kids displayed NORMAL responses to the abuse through their behaviours, they were punished. Now everyone wants to waste their taxpayer dollars on 'elder care'. Please remember that a high percentage of 'elders' treated children very badly up until maybe the early or even mid 2000s. Don't be fooled by their innocent defenseless looks. They don't deserve quality aged care. This situation might be extreme, but it reflected society's attitudes towards kids. Lets spend our hard earned dollars on helping young people, who are the future, not old people who are finished.
If this kind of stuff happened at a nursing home, suddenly everyone would be taking action, but apparently they think children should be seen and not heard. Disgusting.
Where else can sadists hide but under the government skirts. Then they have complete deniability with more support than any of theVICTIMS. WHEN DID PERPETRATORS have more support and rights than the victims!
So, so shameful, and disgusting. I had friends who were studying relevant courses at Massey University in the 70s who were traumatised by placement visits to Lake Alice. Leaks and his accomplices should have been struck off at the very least.
All governments are compromised by blackmail 😢
Do we know if the Lake Alice torturer was tortured as a child or experienced anything traumatic? I’m not justifying but just looking for something causal.
why is he not in prison?
I hope that this psychopathic monster 👹 gets everything he deserves in hell
So if a kids playing up they're mentally ill talk about narrow minded authority
Such arrogant people
Bloody hell.. vulnerable kids are targets for these crimes by elites and ppl in power.
Horrifying 😢
Disgusting behavior he should be not practicing all . He deserves to go to jail for the rest of his life
It's so sad very hurtful to see these young ones suffering. It dose come back and haunt them, ghosts from the past
He treated those children like hell
And I thought the US was bad you guys definitely have me beat
It is beyond disgusting selwyn leeks faced no accountability