Shocking footage shows ‘abuse of youths’ stripped to their waist, hooded and tied to chair in youth detention centre in Darwin, Australia
Prime Minister Malcolm says there will be a royal commission into treatment of children in youth detention in the region
HORRIFIC footage has emerged of an Australian teenager strapped into a mechanical restraint chair as part of his punishment in a youth detention centre.
The disturbing footage, which aired on investigative news program Four Corners in Australia, was part of an investigation into the mistreatment and abuse of youths at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin, Northern Territory.
Shocking instances of apparent abuse of teenage detainees were shown throughout the program.
The program also examined long running issues of mistreatment in the Northern Territory youth justice system.
The boy in the footage has been identified as Dylan Voller, a 17-year-old boy who was a detainee at the centre.
Voller suffered multiple incidents of alleged abuse over a five-year period from October 2010.
Footage shown during the Four Corners program on ABC showed Voller hooded and tied in a restraint chair for two hours, in a scene likened to images from Guantánamo Bay.
The chairs are among items recently including in a widened list of “approved restraints”, which includes cable ties, under laws.
Despite the outrage expressed at this newly released footage, legal groups have been pushing for action against the centre for years.
One boy escaped from his cell into another part of the prison, but the public and media were told that a group had 'broken out'.
The program focused on a 2014 incident described to the media at the time as a 'riot', where a number of youths were teargassed.
This resulted in the use of restraints, hoods and the unlawful transfer of a minor to an adult prison.
Before the incident six boys, including Voller, had been held in isolation for between six and 17 days.
Teargas was sprayed 10 times into the small room where the boys were held.
After the tear gassing incident, the Don Dale Detention Centre was closed and all children were moved to the Berrimah adult prison.
Another former detainee told Four Corners the guards would often force the children to pour boiling water and spit on Voller.
On the day where Mr Voller was strapped down to a chair, he was strapped down for two hours after he threatened to hurt himself while in the adult prison.
In the footage, Mr Voller was ordered by guards to walk backwards into an isolation cell before he asked the guards why his mattress was taken away.
Prison officers on duty were heard saying Mr Voller had misbehaved by chewing on his mattress.
“They’re being shackled to chairs a la Guantánamo Bay,” barrister John Lawrence told ABC.
“This is actually happening in Australia in 2016.”
The NT Government’s tear-gassing and “torture” of children in detention at Don Dale is a “national disgrace that demands a national inquiry”, the Sydney-based law firm representing two of the youths said.
Peter O’Brien, the lawyer representing two boys suing the NT Government for alleged detention centre abuse released a statement, saying: “The Four Corners program on the horrific treatment of children has exposed a national disgrace that demands a national inquiry.”
The teen is wearing what is known as a “spit hood”,
“A Royal Commission into the treatment of children in Northern Territory detention is essential to determine the extent and impact of the abuse, to determine why this abuse was allowed to occur, and who knew about it,” he added. “The abuse is chronic and appears systematic. Our clients have suffered at the hands of those charged to protect them."
A has also been set up, calling for a Royal Commission into the “chronic child abuse in NT youth detention”.
On the ABC’s Q&A program, Australian’s human rights chief Gillian Triggs called for a government inquiry into the facility.
“We certainly need some kind of government-based independent commission,” she said.
RELATED STORIES
Ms Triggs said the footage of the detention centres was “extremely distressing”.
“Sadly, I have never seen conditions of that kind and I have never seen people treated in that way. I think it’s something that as the experts were calling for, we clearly need some kind of investigation into this.”
John Elferink, the NT attorney general, minister for justice, minister for corrections, minister for children and families, and minister for health said he had not seen many of the videos including one where guards were saying “I’ll pulverise the f***er” as a young man in isolation was bagging at windows. But he continued to defend his role overseeing the justice system.
“That demonstrates a lack of training,” he told Four Corners. “When matters come to me I make sure they’re investigated.”
Since 2014 the government has extended staff training from four days to eight weeks.
Human rights commissioner Gillian Triggs told the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday the juvenile detainees were “out of sight and out of mind in the Northern Territory in these detention centres”.
Ken Wyatt, a federal MP and assistant minister for health, said he was “angry, stunned and ashamed” that such treatment could occur in Australia.
Lawyers and human rights activists have called for the facility to be shut down for good and called on the federal government to intervene.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said there will be a royal commission into treatment of children in youth detention in the Northern Territory.
Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368.