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Research register
Lake Alice: punishment inside a children’s psychiatric unit
362–450 children; many admitted from welfare care without psychiatric diagnosis; shocks for running away or complaining; ~41% of welfare-residence admissions were Māori; complaints to agencies and professional bodies went uninvestigated for decades
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What the record says
Worldwide register by region (Batch 2) · Batch 2
- Country / period
- New Zealand, 1972–1978
- Mechanism
- Child and adolescent psychiatric unit; unmodified ECT and paraldehyde used as punishment; seclusion
- What is documented
- 362–450 children; many admitted from welfare care without psychiatric diagnosis; shocks for running away or complaining; \~41% of welfare-residence admissions were Māori; complaints to agencies and professional bodies went uninvestigated for decades
- Finding or status
- OFFICIAL FINDING: Royal Commission Beautiful Children (Dec 2022) finds torture and systemic failure to respond to complaints (abuseincare.org.nz; timeline); UN CAT found inadequate investigation (Zentveld, Jan 2020; Richards, Jun 2022); government formally acknowledged torture 2024; one nurse charged Dec 2021, prosecution stayed; Dr Leeks never tried (Newsroom; PMC review)
- Contrary evidence / limits
- Mechanism is punishment and silencing of children's complaints, not political dissent; 1977 Ombudsman and Medical Council processes produced no sanction
- Label
- VERIFIED
Linked patterns
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Linked corrections
No separately indexed correction linked to this key. Review the source wording and later batches before relying on an earlier assertion.
Reference and provenance
1972-NZ-LAKE-ALICE