‘Abused’ youth detainees start legal action

TEENAGERS at a detention centre where some were allegedly shackled, teargassed and stripped, drawing comparisons with Guantanamo Bay, launched a legal action against Australian authorities yesterday.

Graphic footage of conditions inside the Don Dale youth detention centre aired last year sparked public outrage across Australia and led to a government inquiry.

In one video, from 2015, a boy, 17, was hooded, shackled to a restraint chair and left alone for two hours at the Darwin facility, with critics likening it to Guantanamo, the controversial US military prison in Cuba.

The legal action was filed against the Northern Territory government on behalf of current and former inmates, including Dylan Jenkings and Aaron Hyde.

They allege they were subjected to assault, battery and/or false imprisonment, giving rise to a civil claim for compensation, their law firm said.

Other former inmates who claim to have been assaulted, or subjected to unreasonable periods of isolation or restraint over the past decade, were invited to join the action.

Jenkings, now 18, claims he was punched twice in the back of the head and beaten with batons by guards at Don Dale and then locked in a cell for 48 hours last year.

He said that on a separate occasion he had beenhandcuffed, beaten and kicked by guards.

Hyde, now 20, said he had been handcuffed unnecessarily and struck in the ribs multiple times.

He also alleges he was taken to the Don Dale basketball court, where he was handcuffed to a fence with his arms above his head and left like that for up to an hour.

Acting Chief Minister Nicole Manison said: “The Northern Territory government has been advised of a potential class action concerning youth justice. We take these matters very seriously.”