A former detainee allegedly bashed and forcefully stripped naked by guards at Tasmania’s Ashley Youth Detention Centre says he was bribed by the facility’s boss to say “nice things” to an inquiry.
Max, speaking under a pseudonym, was in and out of the centre in recent years from the age of 12.
For almost 100 years, youth offenders in Tasmania have been sent to the Ashley facility at Deloraine, west of Launceston.Credit:Luke Bowden, ABC News
He said he was digitally penetrated by guards during strip searches and on one occasion handcuffed and pinned against a wall by several staff during a contraband search in an area called the “breezeway”, which has no cameras.
A commission of inquiry examining child sexual abuse in state institutions has been told the centre, in Deloraine in the state’s north that has operated for more than 20 years, has a culture of brutality and dehumanisation.
Max said guards “knew for a fact” which parts of the centre didn’t have video surveillance.
One worker told Max, “There’s no cameras up here. Don’t think you’re tough, I’ve bashed a lot bigger than you”.
Max told workers he would complain to the state’s commissioner for children and young people.
“They just said that is a dog thing to do and that I shouldn’t do that because … no one was going to believe you … over us,” Max said.
Max decided to tell his story to the commission after it was called in late 2020, partly in response to abuse allegations against centre workers.
He said he was offered video games, a different cell and off-site privileges by centre manager Stuart Watson if he said “nice things” and not “bad things”.
“He pretty much tried to bribe me – well, not pretty much, he did,” Max said.
Watson told the inquiry he was confident he did not bribe Max.
“I’m disappointed by what he has said,” he said.
“At no time did I try to coerce Max to do anything but provide his own evidence to the commission.”
Tasmania’s Ashley Youth Detention Centre will close by 2024.Credit:Luke Bowden, ABC News
Max said he initially gave a false statement to the commission, but later provided another containing the truth.
Max said when he arrived at Ashley an older detainee tried to force him to perform a sex act, then “jumped on his head” when he didn’t comply.
Watson said there were still no cameras in the breezeway, but it was not an area that was commonly used.
“In a perfect world there would be cameras everywhere – 20 years ago there wasn’t one camera at [Ashley],” he said.
“We’ve now got about 111 or something like that.”
The state government has promised to close the centre by 2024 and set up two smaller facilities.
Tasmanian Minister for Education, Children and Youth Roger Jaensch said in a statement that plans were moving forward and “significant reform” had occurred at the centre in recent years.
Watson, manager since early 2021 and assistant manager from early 2020, said he was aware of there being a culture of violence and intimidation at the centre, but hadn’t seen actions like that himself.
He said isolation and use of force were reasonably common when he started, but were now at record lows.
“The centre has been siloed off in the middle of Tasmania. It’s been on its own and left to its own devices,” Mr Watson said.
“We still don’t have mobile phone reception throughout the centre. I think that in the past Ashley really was forgotten about.”
More than 100 former detainees this month launched legal action against the state government alleging abuse.
AAP
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