Former inmates speak of how they were sexually abused at Ashley Youth Detention Centre, Tasmania
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Human rights organisations have called for one of Australia’s infamous youth prisons to be closed after hearing a 14-year-old was given contraception pills by guards to stop her from getting pregnant from repeated sexual assaults.
Tasmania’s Commission of Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings began its hearing into the alleged abuse committed at Tasmania’s Ashley Youth Detention Centre last week.
So far, the commission has heard from several witnesses who recall children being sexually abused and forced to stay ‘quiet’ by staff in the isolated environment.
On Monday, the inquiry heard from former Ashley inmate Erin (pseudonym).
Erin said she had been kicked out of her mother’s home and was living in a women’s shelter at the age of 14.
She was then arrested and sent to the Ashley Youth Detention Centre.
A commission inquiry hearing of the sexual abuse at Tasmania’s Ashley Youth Detention Centre (above) commenced last week
‘I stopped regularly attending school, I had no money, no clothes or food so I started stealing,’ she told the inquiry.
‘I was caught stealing a bag of Doritos, which I stole because I was hungry.’
Police initially tried to relocate Erin, but after her stepfather said he didn’t want her, she was taken to Ashley Youth Detention Centre.
‘By the time they told me I was going to Ashley, I was relieved,’ she said.
‘I thought going there would provide me with some sort of security. I thought Ashley would be better, but it turned out to be worse.’
Erin said she was the first female inmate the centre had seen in 18 months.
‘When the boys saw me, they were thrilled. I instantly had the boys yelling things out to me and banging on my windows,’ she said.
After just one month in the facility, Erin said the inmates had turned on her, and she was called a ‘dog and a drama queen’ for reporting a male nurse who touched her.
Professor Leah Bromfield (above) is a commissioner in the inquiry that heard from former Ashley inmate, Erin, who said she was put on a contraceptive pill by staff at the facility over fears she would get pregnant from repeated sexual assaults from male inmates
‘After this, I thought it was pointless speaking up. I learned that you don’t say anything in Ashley, it was more trouble than what it was worth,’ she said.
Erin described the staff at Ashley as a ‘pack of wild animals’ who would constantly protect each other from punishment because they were all from the same small town, Deloraine, and ‘all went to school together’.
She claimed the staff were not interested in hearing complaints and ‘all looked after each other’.
Her first round at Ashley came to an end after she was left alone in a room with 10 male inmates and sexually assaulted.
Erin told another detainee about the incident who then reported it to staff.
She was released from the centre just two or three days later with no medical attention or counselling.
With no support network, Erin ended up back in Ashley just a month after she was initially released.
She said she was jailed for stealing clothes after women at homeless centre had taken all of hers.
Former Ashley staff member Alysha (above) said she felt ‘helpless’ to try and stop the abuse at Ashley and was told several staff at the facility were sex offenders
She claims that when she arrived at Ashley a staff member warned her the boys would ‘hate’ her because she reported her sexual assault and that inmates ‘barked and yelled’ at her as she walked through the yard.
‘Friends of the boys told me they were gonna kick my head in and I wasn’t allowed to come out of my room,’ she said.
‘The workers hated me too because they got told off for what happened. I wasn’t offered any support or protection.’
After this the 14-year-old decided to just ‘go along with’ future sexual assaults for fear of punishment if she reported it.
She said male inmates frequently assaulted her because ‘they knew (they) could get away with it’ and Ashley staff did nothing to prevent the attacks, but were aware they were happening.
The inquiry heard staff at the facility eventually placed Erin on a contraceptive pill to prevent her getting pregnant from the assaults.
‘It has changed me as a person, it took away my innocence,’ Erin said.
Human rights activists and organisations have called for Ashley Youth Detention Centre (above), now operating as Ashley School, to be closed immediately to prevent future abuse
After leaving Ashley, Erin found herself unable to cope with the stress she endured during her time behind bars and turned to drugs.
‘I started using ice, speed and smoking bongs. I drank a lot,’ she said.
‘This was my way of blocking things and helping me forget.’
Erin said she is now suffering from PTSD, anxiety and depression from the time she spent in the Ashley Youth Detention Centre.
‘Children should not be sent to a place like Ashley for minor offences, I was there for stealing a bag of Doritos,’ she said.
The specific dates of Erin’s imprisonment have not been disclosed to protect her identity.
Erin is one of more than 100 victims that have filed a class action against the Tasmanian Government for their alleged lack of action to help young people being abused in Ashley.
The Honourable Marcia Neave (above) is a commissioner in the inquiry which heard Erin was detained at Ashley for minor robbery offences including stealing a bag of Doritos
The Ashley Youth Detention Centre is still in operation under the name Ashley School.
Following Erin’s testimony, the inquiry heard from Alysha who formerly worked as a clinical practice consultant at Ashley.
Alysha said her role at the centre was confusing and that her job was made ‘torturous’ by the lack of action against abuse.
She recalled one incident where she was told a female inmate was dressing like a ‘sl*t’ for wearing pants that were too big for her after losing weight in the facility.
‘I was asked by one of the male operations coordinators to go and remove some of the Ashley-issued clothing and tell her to stop dressing provocatively,’ Alysha told the inquiry.
She also described how a fellow staff member warned her the sexual abuse of children was well embedded into the centre’s operations.
‘He explained that things were very broken and very wrong. He talked about Lester, particularly, and went on to talk about other long-standing members of staff who’d been ”sex offenders” and were still on-site,’ she said.
She claimed the worker kept a file of complaints made against Ashley but the employee later told the inquiry the file did not exist.
Former Ashley worker Alysha (above) said she’d heard one employee was a repeat sexual offender but was still allowed t work at the children’s facility
Another staff member reportedly told Alysha of another incident involving Lester where they had seen a naked child on all floors crying on the floor of an isolation room alongside the worker.
‘It was quite torturous having to see him and work alongside someone with allegations of that nature knowing he’s working amongst some of the most vulnerable children in the state,’ she said.
‘I’ve never felt so helpless in my life. There was nothing I could do to reduce the risk.’
The Commission of Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings has so far heard from seven witnesses regarding the Ashley Youth Detention Centre.
The hearings regarding Ashley will continue until Friday.
Tasmania’s former premier Peter Gutwein announced last September that Ashley will be closed in three years time, in 2024.
Current premier Jeremy Rockliff reaffirmed this timeline and on Tuesday a $40million budget for new youth correctional facilities was announced.
The new detention centres will house Ashley’s current inmates and allow the prison to close forever.
The Honourable Robert Benjamin (above) is a commissioner in the inquiry hearing the horrific sexual abuse suffered by children at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre
However, human rights organisations and key activists have called for the facility to be shut immediately over fears the prolonged closure is actively allowing the abuse of children to continue.
Last Friday UNICEF Australia tweeted: ‘We are deeply concerned by reports of children subjected to extreme violence and sexual abuse inside Ashley Youth Detention Centre.’
‘Far from being rehabilitative, the Centre is patently unsafe for all children and young people, who should be moved to safer community settings now.’
University of Tasmania Professor of Criminology Robert White, who previously reviewed the centre in 2011, also called for the centre to be closed while speaking at the inquiry last Thursday.
‘I would raze Ashley to the ground. I would destroy the physical infrastructure tomorrow,’ he said.
‘We don’t have three years of transition, I would get rid of it immediately.’
Amnesty International wrote a letter to Tasmanian Attorney General and Minister for Justice Elise Archer on Friday to request a meeting to discuss the ‘harrowing’ allegations.
University of Tasmania Professor of Criminology Robert White (above) reviewed Ashley in 2011 and told the inquiry the facility should be immediately destroyed
The letter also called for ‘closing the Ashley Youth Detention Centre as a matter of urgency’.
‘Our position is that kids don’t belong in prison,’ an Amnesty spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Getting kids into therapeutic and diversion programs is what is going to both end youth offending and systemic abuse like what we’ve heard has been happening at Ashley and at Don Dale, Banksia Hill – the list goes on.’
The commission formerly heard from ex-Ashley inmate Brett Robinson in June.
Mr Robinson described a horror strip-search conducted by Ashley staff when he was just 14 years old.
‘I got down to my boxers and I went to pick my clothes up. He said “no you need to take your shorts off”,’ Mr Robinson told the inquiry.
‘I pretended I didn’t hear him. He slammed me to the ground (and) pretty much ripped my shorts off me.
‘He said to me “you’re not listening”. He ran his finger basically between my butt cheeks and inserted a finger in, and said “welcome to Ashley, you do as you’re told”.’