Lake Alice ‘dark tourism’ upsets survivor

• Published date: 18 April 2024
• Author: Eva de Jong
• Publication title: Northern Advocate, The (Whangarei, New Zealand)

The water tower once supplied Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital — where young children were subjected to torture through electric shocks and numbing paraldehyde injections in the 1970s, under the charge of lead psychiatrist Dr Selwyn Leeks

The original hospital buildings have been destroyed and turned into farmland, with the remaining water tower now in private ownership.

A Lake Alice survivor said in recent months there had been groups visiting the water tower in the middle of the night. They had been doing burnouts, smashing windows and tagging the tower.

She had seen comments on social media that included people saying “there’s ghosts out there”.

Scott Phillips, who owns the water tower, suspected it was being targeted by people with an interest in “dark tourism”.

“Whether it’s kids thinking it’s a neat thing to do to hold a seance out there, or to write their names on it — I don’t know.

“I’d like to believe the people doing this have no concept of what actually took place there.”

The survivor said she found the behaviour “really upsetting and disturbing”.

“Every time I hear this, and the other survivors hear it, it’s upsetting...