WELLINGTON — New Zealand will provide financial compensation to children and teens who were abused at a state psychiatric hospital in the 1970s and issue a written letter of apology that explicitly acknowledges torture, the government said on Wednesday (Dec 18).

An enquiry released in July found that 362 children who did not have any form of mental illness were subject to unmodified electroconvulsive therapy or paraldehyde injections at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit between 1972 and 1978.

It found that instead the children and teens were abused for punishment and emotional control.

"It is never possible to right or compensate for the torture of children," Erica Stanford, the minister leading the government's response to the enquiry's findings, said at a press conference.

"Cabinet has agreed to recognition to those remaining survivors for the torture that they suffered in the care of the State."

Compensation for those still alive would come in three parts — a one-off payment, a new written apology that acknowledges torture, and facilitating access to support and rehabilitative services, Stanford added.

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