Medics probed after Toran tragedy
Sunday News
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DETECTIVES investigating the death of tragic teen Toran Henry will send their file to the crown solicitor for legal advice on whether criminal charges, including manslaughter, could succeed against medical professionals who treated him.
Seventeen-year-old Toran was found dead in his mother's garage at Auckland's North Shore on March 20 last year.
Police have been probing the death on behalf of the coroner. An inquest into the suspected suicide is expected in coming months.
Sunday News has been told police have interviewed members of Toran's family, his friends, staff at Takapuna Grammar School and medical professionals who treated him for depression.
The head of the police inquiry, Inspector Gary Davey, last night confirmed the inquiry was completed and was being reviewed by a senior detective.
Once that review was completed, and before the file was sent to the coroner, police would approach Auckland's crown solicitor for a legal opinion, Davey said.
"We are doing this to make sure our investigation covers all the bases," the inspector said.
"We are investigating any criminal culpability but I am not prepared to go into any more detail at the moment.
"What I can say is that the charge would only ever be manslaughter, definitely not murder."
Davey said the legal opinion being sought related to issues around Toran's medical treatment for depression.
The teen was treated by doctors at Waitemata District Health Board since December 2006, when he was admitted for a self-harm attempt.
Following his death, the DHB launched an inquiry into Toran's treatment.
The report concluded:
Toran was medicated in haste with Prozac and in the absence of proper assessment "There was no documented diagnosis of depression in a case where depression was not all that clear cut," the report said.
A junior social worker who spoke to Toran in the hours before he died did not attempt to explore the issues around why he was upset. "We cannot know for sure if this kind of approach would have calmed Toran," the report said.
A registrar advised Toran he did not
need to take Prozac on the days he drank beer advice the report's authors said "did not make pharmacological sense".
The report revealed the DHB's mental health funding per child in 2005 and 2006 was the third lowest in the country, amounting to just over $62 for each child outpatient.
The health board did not respond to Sunday News questions.
A well-placed crown lawyer said it was "not unheard of but certainly wasn't common" for police to send a suspected suicide file for a legal opinion.
"The police have obviously decided that there is the possibility that there may be a culpable homicide here and they need to determine whether there is sufficient evidence," the legal source said.
New Zealand law was changed several years ago, the source said, meaning the test for mounting a charge against a medical professional had increased.
"Before, all that was needed for the prosecution to establish liability was negligence, now it has to be a very high level of negligence."
Toran's mother Maria Bradshaw who lost her high-paying executive job shortly after her son's death and will soon be financially forced from her home had previously said she would launch a private prosecution against doctors who treated her son.
But she welcomed the police decision to seek a legal opinion and said she was looking forward to the events leading up to her son's death being aired in a legal forum.
A Medical Council of New Zealand spokesman said it would be inappropriate to discuss individual doctors, especially if criminal charges were possible.
No professional body could force a doctor from their job until they were found guilty of a criminal offence punishable by more than three months imprisonment or before a private complaint was lodged.
