Don Dale: riots, sex, self harm and abuse

Riots, pool sex romps, self harm, physical abuse and sexual harassment are just some of the shocking stories from the notorious Don Dale Youth Detention Centre.

Over the past three weeks the Northern Territory's juvenile justice royal commission has heard horrifying testimony from former detainees, guards and those higher in the chain of command.

Here are some of the most shocking stories from Darwin's notorious Don Dale Youth Detention Centre.

* Three girls at Darwin's Don Dale Youth Detention Centre were given the morning after contraceptive pill after allegedly having sex in a pool with teenage boys following a riot in 2011.

Three female and two male detainees were also treated for sexually transmitted infections after the Christmas night incident. One of the boys, who was 17 at the time, was referred to police for having sex with an underage girl.

In response, management moved some of the kids to the nearby adult jail. One boy identified as BY told the inquiry he was kept in solitary confinement, spithooded, forced to shower with adult prisoners and threatened by guards with rape.

* An ex guard admitted to jokingly asking inmates to perform oral sex on him and daring a child to eat bird faeces before posting the footage on Snapchat.

He also filmed a boy in the bathroom urinating, but was never disciplined for any of those incidents. The man rejected allegations from three separate detainees that he recorded a child masturbating in the shower.

* A girl with a history of attempting suicide when placed in solitary confinement self harmed six times over five days at Don Dale after being locked down yet again in March 2015.

She was hospitalised three times during that period for trying to kill herself yet wasn't seen by a mental health expert for four days. The girl, known as AN, told the inquiry that she felt "dying was better than staying in isolation".

One of AN's worst memories was when a group of male guards restrained her, cut her clothes off with a Hoffman knife and later gave her an 'at risk' gown.

* A former detainee identified as BE said when he told a guard he wanted to kill himself, the officer's alleged response was "go ahead then, do it".

The then 14-year-old was kept in a solitary confinement cell for two months which had no running water, fans or natural light.

Co-commissioner Margaret White said every single witness has described the isolation unit as "the most disgusting place, and not fit for a human being to be in".


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Source: AAP


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