The 89-year-old man charged with ill-treating children after the latest police investigation into Lake Alice psychiatric hospital can now be named.
John Richard Corkran Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
An order keeping John Richard Corkran's name secret expired at 5pm on Tuesday.
The Marton man is accused of injecting patients aged under 16 at the hospital's child and adolescent unit with paralysing drugs as punishment, between 1974 and 1977 when he worked there.
In the Whanganui District Court last week, Corkran pleaded not guilty to eight charges and elected trial by jury.
Defence lawyer Steve Winter asked last week for a temporary suppression order so Corkran could tell his family, but said he "would not fight this in the shadows".
Court documents say Corkran injected the boys with drugs for reasons including them running away; calling him a bastard; "being smart"; and because a boy was "enjoying himself too much, laughing and having jokes with friends".
Six alleged victims are named in court documents, while another charge refers to an unidentified child.
The ill-treatment charges have a maximum penalty of 10 years' jail.
Corkran is on bail. His case will be called for an administrative hearing in March, but he may not attend.
Police announced earlier this month they had charged a person after their latest investigation into ill-treatment allegations at Lake Alice, which operated near Marton until the late 1990s.
They said the unit's head psychiatrist, Dr Selwyn Leeks, and another former staff member were medically unfit to stand trial, although there was enough evidence to lay charges.
Leeks, 92, lives in Australia and suffers from dementia and cancer.
No-one was charged after previous police investigations in 1977-78 and from 2002-2010.
At the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State Care this year, police apologised for shortcomings in the 2002-2010 investigation.
