CAT/C/68/D/852/2017 certain members of staff of the Unit. The complainant believes the police took a long time with their investigation before they made their final report in 2010. During this time, they had interviewed only 1 of the 41 people who had filed criminal complaints, whereas Sir Rodney Gallen had managed to interview 41 complainants for his report in a much shorter space of time. Just like the inadequate investigations of the late 1970s, it appears that the police chose not to look at all of the Lake Alice cases in detail and collectively in terms of their corroborative evidence. The complainant believes that their reasoning is inadequate given the high profile and public interest in the case. 5.7 Referring to the countervailing public interest, the complainant submits that during the period the police received the complaints, public interest in the abuse of children in State care never waned. In 2004, the State party recognized the underlying problems experienced by the historically abused claimants and established a confidential forum as a means of discussing their experiences for people who were in psychiatric hospitals and institutions. In 2008, the Government then opened up a wider forum with the confidential listening and assistance service for victims of psychiatric and State care abuse and neglect. Over a period of seven years 1,103 people came forward. 5.8 Contrary to the State party’s allegations, the abuses at the Lake Alice Child and Adolescent Unit continue to be in the public interest and in the news. In a television broadcast on 25 November 2018, an investigative journalist reported on the failure of the police to properly investigate the claims of ill-treatment and criminal wrongdoing at Lake Alice.29 This indicates that there may well have been grounds for a prosecution for alleged offences committed in the Lake Alice Unit. It also appears that there may have been reasons not to prosecute any of the Lake Alice cases other than those set out in the State party’s report. 5.9 Interest is still strong, with the Government having announced in February 2018 that there will be a Royal Commission of Inquiry into historical abuse in State care and in November announcing the terms of reference. This should be the largest inquiry of its kind in the country’s history, as it is set to span a period of four years. 5.10 In response to the alleged delay in submitting his communication, the complainant mentions that he submitted his complaint to the police in 2006. In 2010, he received notification that the police would not be instituting a prosecution against Dr. Leeks or any of the staff or hospital authorities at Lake Alice. In 2015, the complainant requested the police file relating to his complaint and found that there was a possibility of a criminal charge. It was two years after this discovery that he decided to take his case to the Committee. 5.11 The State party is confident that similar events will not take place again owing to the safeguards within the legislation surrounding psychiatric treatment. There are however no guarantees that future serious allegations of ill-treatment and physical and sexual abuse of psychiatric patients, young or old, will not be covered up in the way the cases and complaints of Lake Alice have been, through official channels, obfuscation and not actually believing the patients and their complaints, especially at the time or near the time they occur. By not conducting a full and independent inquiry, either through the medical, civil or criminal courts, the events of Lake Alice have never been properly aired through the open examination which such courts provide. 5.12 The State party has raised a criticism that the Gallen report in 2001 did not take into account the views of the staff, the nurses or the doctors at Lake Alice, but the Government has never provided the opportunity or the forum to air those views. The Royal Commission of Inquiry may be the only avenue left to investigate the Lake Alice cases in an open and unbiased forum. However, it is not certain that the Commission will look into why the police did not mount a full investigation of the Lake Alice complaints and lay charges against Dr. Leeks and certain former members of staff, or the failure of the Medical Council 29 10 See Mike Wesley-Smith, “Glimmer of hope for Lake Alice state abuse survivors”, Newshub (24 November 2018), available from www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2018/11/glimmer-of-hope-forlake-alice-state-abuse-survivors.html.