The price of a ruined life

RNZ News

08-05-2025

Malcom Richards is funding his court action against the government's redress offer.
Photo:
Jimmy Ellingham
A warning, this story references abuse.
How much should you expect in compensation for a ruined childhood?
Can you even put a figure on years of abuse that in some cases included torture - electric shocks and paralysing injections?
A month after Prime Minister Christopher Luxon delivered an official apology to victims of abuse in state and faith-based case last November, government minister Erica Stanford announced there would be compensation for 118 eligible Lake Alice torture victims in a $22.68 million scheme.
That works out to $150,000 per person, and the victims had until last week to decide if it was fair. More than 70 survivors took it, with another 44 taking another option of negotiating an individual settlement.
Malcolm Richards was not one of them. He's taking court action instead, filing a judicial review against the government offer, arguing it breaches New Zealand's obligations under the UN torture convention.
After filing the review on Monday he told reporters on the steps of the High Court at Wellington that the money "doesn't just make up for the loss of income. It doesn't cover the rehabilitation we require".
Speaking to
The Detail
later in the day from his Wellington hotel room, Richards said all victims of torture, not just those from Lake Alice, should be offered adequate compensation.
"They haven't followed the UN's protocols on torture redress," says Richards. "It's not just monetary, there's very little if any rehabilitation offered at all."
An announcement on further government redress for those tortured in other state institutions is expected soon.
Richards says the electric shocks he was administered caused cognitive difficulties that left him unable to work.
"Memory loss has followed me from job to job and I forget what bosses have told me and get yelled at and abused... It's a real struggle to hold down jobs," he says.
He couldn't "pluck a figure out of the air" for what was appropriate for him, and says he wants the court to decide.
Richards is funding his own court action, raising money on Givealittle and cashing in his KiwiSaver.
He now waits for a court date, while also undergoing cancer treatment.
Some people who did take the rapid payment are moving on with their lives.
RNZ's Jimmy Ellingham meets Robyn Dandy at Lake Alice on a windy, cold Sunday, more than 25 years after the facility closed. There is little sign of what used to be there.
Robyn Dandy at the site of the former Lake Alice institution.
Photo:
Jimmy Ellingham
She tells him she has no regrets over opting to take the $150,000 payment.
"What the government has given us in the way of compensation, as we all know, won't ever make up for what we went through, but for me it's opened new doors to move forward, and just [have] financial stability for the rest of my life.
"I did buy a little gypsy wagon and I've put a little memorial to my grandson on the front of it."
Her grandson, Kahn Petch, died in a house fire after Dandy had made a promise one day the pair would travel around together. Now, she has the means to do that.
She also decided to fund a memorial at the Lake Alice site, although the Rangitīkei District Council had since agreed to pay for it and its upkeep.
No one was charged over what happened at Lake Alice.
Dandy says it's disgraceful that the unit's lead psychiatrist Dr Selwyn Leeks was never held to account, but she now feels sorry for him and his staff - even though they tortured children.
The Detail
also talks to human rights lawyer Lydia Oosterhoff, a senior associate at Wellington firm Cooper Legal, who says she's glad some Lake Alice survivors had received compensation.
Lydia Oosterhoff is a human rights lawyer and senior associate at Cooper Legal.
Photo:
Jimmy Ellingham
But she questions why those tortured at other institutions haven't yet had similar treatment.
The Royal Commission on Historical Abuse in State Care suggests upwards of 200,000 people were victims of that era, most of them in social welfare care.
Oosterhoff says making them wait for redress is another form of psychological abuse.
Erica Stanford says the Lake Alice redress scheme was specific to torture and had been the priority.
She understood that after six years of Royal Commission inquiries and the tabling of its final report last year, survivors wanted clarity about the government's response.
"As we said at the apology, this is complex work that would be a priority for this year. I will be making announcements about redress shortly."
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