Hake Halo pictured while he was giving evidence to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in state care. Photo: Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in state care / screenshot
The man whose drawings first exposed the torture of children at the Lake Alice child and adolescent unit in the 1970s has died.
Hake Halo was sent to the Rangitīkei psychiatric hospital. There the unit's lead psychiatrist Dr Selwyn Leeks subjected the Niuean-born boy to electric shocks.
However, he managed to alert his family about what was happening by writing messages in Niuean on pictures he'd drawn. Lake Alice staff didn't suspect anything as the expressions on the faces of the people in the drawings were happy, so the messages got through.
In late 1976, the Auckland Committee on Racism and Discrimination made public the 14-year-old's story.
Committee founding member Dr Oliver Sutherland led efforts for accountability, but despite front-page stories in the NZ Herald and a damning report from chief ombudsman Sir Guy Powles, an official inquiry proved a whitewash.
It took until last year for the government to apologise to victims of abuse in state and faith-based care and announce a compensation scheme for Lake Alice torture victims.
Leeks died in early 2022, having never faced prosecution for his crimes. No charges were laid in two police investigations and by 2021, when police again looked into what happened at the unit, prompted by evidence at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in state care, Leeks wasn't fit enough to face prosecution.
Police said, however, they would have laid charges.
In his evidence to the Royal Commission Halo said of the electric shocks: "It was like two huge knives being driven into my head, and I was very afraid. Afterwards, I would have headaches, memory loss, anger and fear.
"I would beg Dr Leeks not to do it again but he didn't care. He was a man full of hatred."
'We loved Hake'
Halo was farewelled at a funeral in Mangere on Friday after battling illness.
Sutherland said Halo showed courage in exposing and challenging the terrible treatment he suffered at Lake Alice.
"His staunch willingness to make his story public ensured that the institution was closed down, that the psychiatrist [Leeks] fled to Australia, and that the practices endured by the children of Lake Alice would never be forgotten.
"We particularly recall his initiative in telling his grandmother of his plight by messaging her in Niuean, using stick figures, to avoid detection," Sutherland said.
It was an image the Royal Commission used on the cover of its report into Lake Alice, Beautiful Children.
"Hake launched and supported the campaign against the horrific abuses perpetrated in the name of psychiatry at Lake Alice, and we and the country acknowledge and thank him for that."
Fellow Lake Alice survivor Paul Zentveld couldn't be there as he recovers from a recent heart attack.
He said he was saddened by Halo's death after what they went through together at the unit. He said Halo was vulnerable and would often need protection.
"He was having these attacks all the time," Zentveld said. "There were four of us that used to circle around him as when he had an attack - a seizure - the nurses would pick on him.
"We devised a little plan that we would huddle around him when he was on the ground. We didn't know what it was, but it was horrible.
"We loved Hake. He was gentle, even as a kid."
At the Royal Commission hearings in Auckland in 2021 the pair would sit together and reminisce about good moments, and bad ones too.
The pair had remained in contact after being at Lake Alice.
Halo said he was 14 when he got out of the unit.
"I would've had a normal life if I hadn't gone to Lake Alice. It's been hard to hold down a job. I suffer from anger, fear, forgetfulness, hearing voices, stress, confusion and much more," he told the Royal Commission.
"I had had epilepsy as a baby and the electric shocks made it come back, plus I had developed a big problem with my temper. I have nightmares a lot about the torture and I don't feel safe sleeping by myself in my own bed. Lying on my back makes me think about getting ready to have electric shocks and, once the fear comes, I cannot sleep."
Zentveld said Halo had a strong Christian faith and a beautiful family, and his death had hit hard.
"He was like family. He was family to us. Always has been."
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