No proof of abuse by doctor, say police

The police say they have no evidence of criminal offending by Dr Selwyn Leeks, the psychiatrist whom former patients accuse of abusing them with electric shock therapy in the 1970s.

Thirteen former patients of the child and adolescent unit at the now-closed Lake Alice Hospital near Wanganui have complained to the police about Dr Leeks since the Government began paying compensation to many ex-patients in 2001.

A police national headquarters spokeswoman said yesterday: "there is no disclosed activity or intervention with patients at Lake Alice that amounts to criminal offending on the part of Dr Selwyn Leeks. On that basis there is neither requirement nor authority to seek the extradition of Dr Leeks from Australia."

Yesterday the Herald could not contact Dr Leeks, who practises in Melbourne.

The psychiatric patient advocacy group, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, was disappointed by the decision, but vowed to fight on.

"We're not giving up now. We are still working with victims and are still going to be filing criminal complaints," said the group's New Zealand executive director, Steve Green.

A former patient, Aucklander Paul Zentveld, said he was preparing a complaint against Dr Leeks.

"Let them turn us down at the moment but we aren't going away ... Justice will be served one day."

Dr Leeks headed the hospital's notorious child and adolescent unit, which operated from 1972 to 1977.

The Government paid $10.7 million compensation to 183 former patients, after a retired judge it appointed to investigate said they were subjected to a regime of "terror." Their allegations, which the judge accepted as "in the main ... true," included the use of electric shock therapy and painful injections to punish children, a youngster being locked away with an insane adult patient and sexual abuse.

An Australian medical authority has interviewed former Lake Alice patients in preparation for a hearing into allegations against Dr Leeks.