Jail riot suspect charged

ONE of the alleged ringleaders of the Cleveland Detention Centre riot has been charged with the vicious assault of two youth workers.

It is also understood the Aurukun teen charged over the assaults was first sent to Cleveland for his involvement in the unrest in the remote indigen- ous community last year that forced teachers to flee the town.

This latest incident following the November 10 riot saw two workers bashed on June 14 in a completely “unprovoked attack”.

It will be alleged the 17year- old offender was playing a game of touch football when he grabbed a worker by the throat and punched him sev- eral times in the face. When another worker came to his colleague’s aid, it will be alleged the teen turned on them, punching the other worker in the side of the head.

The two youth workers managed to restrain the teen and were left with bruising and other injuries.

Officers from the Child Protection Investigation Unit ( CPIU) charged the 17- year- old on Monday with counts of serious assault, lowing the bashing.

CPIU Constable Amanda McHugh said the assault was unprovoked.

“We will allege he grabbed one youth worker around the throat and punched that person,” Constable McHugh said yesterday. “Another youth worker has come to his aid and in that process the other youth two fol- worker has been punched to the side of his head. The assault occurred during a game of touch footy … it was really unprovoked. It appears everything was going fine and then things changed and he became aggressive towards both staff members and that’s when the assaults occurred.

“They’ve got a difficult job as it is and no one deserves to be assaulted while at work,” she said. The accused will appear in court on July 10.

A source inside Cleveland said morale at the centre was still very low following the riot.

“Staff were on edge when these kids came back and that is still the case at the moment,” the source said.

“A lot of staff still are not coming back to work. We can’t get enough people to man the units because staff just aren’t showing up for their shifts.

“Morale is really low and incidents like this aren’t helping.”