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Chelmsford: deep-sleep therapy and the inquiry that followed
Royal Commission (Slattery, 1990)
Read each occurrence in context. Evidence labels below are the labels recorded by the source edition; importing a row does not independently verify it.
Account 1
Worldwide register by region (Batch 2) · Batch 2
- Country / period
- Australia (NSW), 1963–1979
- Mechanism
- "Deep sleep therapy" at a private hospital; 24+ deaths
- What is documented
- Royal Commission (Slattery, 1990)
- Finding or status
- OFFICIAL FINDING
- Contrary evidence / limits
- Malpractice more than silencing; included in the spectrum
- Label
- LEAD
Account 2
Worldwide register by region (Batch 2) · Batch 4
- Country / period
- Australia (NSW), 1963–1979; Royal Commission 1988–1990
- Mechanism
- Private psychiatric hospital; barbiturate "deep sleep therapy" with ECT; false death certificates
- What is documented
- 24 deaths from the treatment (other counts reach 85 including later suicides); only four deaths reached a coroner; complaints from patients and families produced coronial findings of no case to answer; Bailey himself was later secretly given the treatment by his partner
- Finding or status
- OFFICIAL FINDING: Slattery Royal Commission, 12 volumes, reports 17 and 21 Dec 1990 — irresponsible experimentation, fraud, gross negligence; treatment banned; coronial and medical-complaints law reformed (Dictionary of Sydney; NSW State Archives description; Wellcome Collection film record)
- Contrary evidence / limits
- Malpractice rather than political silencing; but a second documented case (with Lake Alice) of complaint channels failing for over a decade
- Label
- VERIFIED
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Reference and provenance
1963-AU-CHELMSFORD