Hake Hola's evidence where he describes being given electric shocks and hearing other kids screaming while they get it. Video / Royal Commission
"An uncontrollable animal" - that's the way Dr Selwyn Leeks once described teenager Hake Halo who was given electric shocks as punishment for bad behaviour.
Halo was just 13 when he was sent to the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit in 1975 for what was deemed an ongoing history of bad behaviour.
During his nine months at the unit Halo was subjected to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) numerous times - a torture that was so severe his body would lift from the bed, despite staff holding him down, until he passed out.
"It was really painful," he recalls. "The pain is just like being hit by a sledgehammer on the head."
Today, as Halo gives evidence during the Royal Commission of Inquiry's Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit hearing in Auckland, he had a simple message to send back to the man who hurt him all those years ago.
"An uncontrollable animal ... I just return it back to him, he's just talking about himself."
Nearly 300 children, some as young as 8, were admitted to the unit between 1972 and 1978. It's believed there may well be a further 113 children who attended but the paperwork has long been lost.
Children at the unit were subject to physical and sexual abuse, electrocuted without any muscle relaxants or anaesthetic and given painful paraldehyde injections as punishment.
During Halo's time there he tried to send a message to his mother by drawing a stick figure with a smiley face - but added a secret message in Niuean telling her what was happening.
He was too scared to tell anyone else and children who did try to run away were brought back by police who didn't believe their stories.
Lake Alice Mental Health Hospital in 1971. Photo / NZME
Halo was born in Niue and moved to New Zealand with his parents (his biological grandparents) when he was 5 years old.
He couldn't speak a word of English and was moved through several schools for what was deemed bad behaviour, despite not being able to understand what was going on.
In one case he was sent out of the classroom for not singing properly. Scared and trying to get back into the locked classroom he began banging on the door but ended up accidentally smashing a glass panel on it.
After that he was deemed a violent child and a notice was sent to his parents saying he was being put in St Johns psychiatric hospital.
After his father died, he got into trouble at school and was sent to Owairaka Boys Home before being admitted to the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit in 1975.
He says ECT was a punishment that was dished out for numerous things.
He clearly remembers his first time, which came out of the blue.
"My name was called from the lounge and I just came out to the person who called."
"He said come with me...and I just followed him without knowing what was going to happen."
"That's when they put the electrodes on my head and next minute I just woke up because I was knocked out without feeling anything that time."
Hake Halo was sent to Lake Alice in 1975.
The next time Halo was called into the room was far worse.
Dr Leeks wet the ends of the electrode pads before placing them on the teen's temples.
"I thought it was going to be the same thing as before but then I started feeling funny, the way the person was looking. I asked him is it going to be painful and he said 'yes it is' so I told him I don't want it, please I don't want it.
"He said 'sorry mate,'...you're just going to have to do it."
"I was crying my eyes out at that time. I said 'well, if it hurts I don't want it' but he just took no notice. That's when he put it on and put the mouth guard in.
"I was thankful for that mouth guard because ... without the mouth guard the person would end up biting his tongue off."
Along with the pain Halo described the feeling of being shocked, saying his body would repeatedly lift up off the bed until he was unconscious.
"When they turned it on I can feel myself actually sitting up...I can't remember how far but your body is off the bed.
"They are holding you down and they turn it off, that's when you fall back down and you are crying and crying... He turns it back on again and it goes on until you're knocked out, that's when it stops."
Afterwards the boys would feel dazed and confused.
He said the other children in the unit could always tell when someone was being given ECT.
Halo said he believes the treatments he received at Lake Alice had had a role to play in him struggling to control his temper later in life - something that has cost him several jobs.
Karen Feint QC is representing the Crown during the hearing.
The Inquiry heard there were numerous complaints from children, parents, teachers and other people about what was happening at the unit during the 1970s.
Members of the Auckland Committee on Racism and Discrimination (ACORD) spent years campaigning for a full inquiry into what was happening and who was responsible after hearing about Halo's case and talking to his family.
Members Oliver Sutherland and Dr Ross Galbreath's calls for a Ministerial Inquiry resulted in the 1977 Mitchell Inquiry but they felt the terms of reference were too narrow as they focused more on Halo's experience than the wider issue.
Sutherland said he felt the Mitchell Inquiry was "a whitewash" as the findings essentially exonerated the actions of the officials and medical staff involved.
Sutherland and Galbreath also contacted Members of Parliament, psychologists, and investigative journalists to make sure the New Zealand public were aware of what was happening - triggering several more families to come forward.
It was at this stage they discovered some children were also being given electric shocks on their knees while seated in chairs.
Sutherland sent a telegram to the Minister of Health describing the allegations he had received from other adolescents at the unit as torture.
However, a police investigation the next year found no criminal misconduct.
"By then we were beyond being surprised. Nobody had believed these children."
Former police youth aid officer Tony Sutherland also gave evidence saying while he wasn't aware of the shock treatment at Lake Alice he did have concerns about the way students from Holdsworth Boys' Home were being sent there.
He tried to raise concerns with his superiors and people in other government departments but felt shut down each time.
"The level at what I had seen I was disturbed but not motivated enough to escalate it after having been closed down by those four people in authority."
"I would have pursued it (if I knew about the shock treatments) I wouldn't have been shut down."
Craig Jackson, a psychologist with the Department of Education who visited Lake Alice once a month for about two years, also tried to raise concerns on several occasions after being made aware ECT was being used in a punitive fashion.
Jackson, who has since died, reached out to people in the Department of Education, Health and police and eventually sent a release to the media about what was happening.
It wasn't until the early 2000s, the Government eventually acknowledged the torture when it issued a written apology and paid compensation to nearly 200 survivors. That compensation still remains open to survivors who come forward today.
Leeks' lawyer Hayden Rattray said the 92-year-old was no longer in a position to meaningfully engage in the inquiry and was not even aware of the hearing. He suffers from numerous medical conditions including prostrate cancer, chronic kidney dysfunction and possibly dementia.
Crown Secretariat Karen Feint said the crown was not at the hearing to defend the position but rather "to listen, to learn and to change".
"The Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit represents a dark chapter in the nation's history. The Crown acknowledges terrible things happened at Lake Alice that should never have happened to any child."
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