The Ashley Youth Detention Centre has been labelled many ugly things and there has been no shortage of stories of abuse and hopelessness coming out of Tasmania’s only youth detention centre.
One only has to google the centre to discover its reputation. Originally opened as a boys home in 1922 it evolved into a youth detention centre in 1999 and is targeted to be shut down by end of 2024.
Over the years stories have been told of verbal and physical abuse, beatings, invasive strip searches and sexual abuse. There were also allegations of staff covering up reports of abuse and destroying evidence. These are some of the allegations that came out of the “Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government’s Responses to Child Sexual abuse in Institutional Settings”, an inquiry set up by the Tasmanian State government in November 2020.
The Commissions’ recent findings recommended the detention centre be shut down as soon as possible as there was a real and present risk of ongoing abuse of the detainees.
A class action has been launched in Tasmania however there are risks of class actions in historical sexual abuse matters and those are outlined in our previous article ‘The problems with class actions for historic sexual abuse matters’.
If you have been a victim of sexual and physical abuse at Ashley Youth Detention Centre the team at Chamberlains can help. At Chamberlains Law firm we give our client’s the opportunity to explore what their claim might be worth. Our aim is to achieve an acknowledgement of the wrongs committed against our survivors and financial settlement through civil abuse action in the courts that meets our client’s individual circumstances. There is no perfect settlement and there are never guarantees in litigation but we will fight hard to ensure we get the best outcome we can for you.
This article was prepared with the assistance of Keziah Holdsworth*
If you have any questions or concerns please contact our Abuse Compensation Director Jon May on 02 6188 3600