Former inmates of the Don Dale juvenile detention centre are seeking to extend their legal claims against the Northern Territory government following shocking footage aired by the ABC on Monday.
Six people who served time inside Don Dale are suing the NT government, including 18-year-old Dylan Voller, who was shown hooded and strapped to a mechanical restraint chair, and Jake Roper, now 16, whose outburst prompted the tear-gassing of six children held in isolation in 2014.
Procedural hearings for the six claims were heard in closed sessions of the Northern Territory Supreme Court on Tuesday, just hours after the Four Corners episode stunned the nation and prompted Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to announce a royal commission.
Peter O'Brien, the solicitor acting for Mr Voller and Jake Roper, said his legal team advised the court it may seek to expand its series of claims based on the additional footage aired by the ABC that had not been previously provided by the NT government.
Those claims include battery, unlawful assault and unlawful deprivation of liberty in respect of both individuals.
Mr O'Brien alleges Chief Minister Adam Giles' government is vicariously liable for the conduct of guards at the Don Dale detention centre, a claim the government's lawyers deny.
"They're defending this matter and obviously it's for the court to determine whether or not the Territory is liable for the actions of these guards. We say, of course, that they are," he told Fairfax Media.
"The Northern Territory government is refusing to accept the liability in this claim, which means we now need to sue each of the officers involved in the gassing."
Mr O'Brien said he had encountered "a great deal of resistance to this claim", although Tuesday's hearing had gone "fairly smoothly". He said it was "totally coincidental" that the claims, filed in March, were heard in the NT Supreme Court the day after the Four Corners program aired.
Mr Voller was on Tuesday being detained at an adult prison in what his lawyer described as "segregated imprisonment". In a statement, Mr O'Brien called for his client's immediate release.
"The impact of these years of brutalisation must be immediately measured and he needs immediate assistance," he wrote. He later told ABC Radio in Darwin that despite Mr Voller's long record of serious crimes, the 18-year-old had "tremendous potential if given the opportunity".
On Tuesday evening, Mr O'Brien released a hand-written letter from Mr Voller expressing his gratitude to his lawyers and the ABC for "all the help in getting the truth out there".
"I would just like to thank the whole Australian community for the support you have showed for us a boy's [sic] as well as our families," Mr Voller wrote. "I would also like to take those opportunity to appologise [sic] to the community for my wrongs and I can't wait to get out and make up for them."
The allegations against staff at Don Dale were published in a report tabled in the Northern Territory Parliament last year. But it has taken the graphic footage aired on Monday to prompt not only a royal commission but the removal of NT Corrections Minister John Elferink, whose duties will be assumed by Mr Giles.
Mr Elferink, due to retire at the upcoming NT election, will remain as Attorney-General and retain his ministerial responsibilities for children, families, disability and justice.
Priscilla Collins, chief executive of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, said it was inconceivable the NT government could have been shocked by the footage aired on Four Corners.
"They have been fully aware of what has been going on," she said. "The reports show it. They had access to the footage. There is no cover-up - they knew about it."
Labor has called for the royal commission's terms of reference to be extended beyond the Don Dale centre in Darwin and take in the entire NT juvenile justice system.
Dylan Voller has instructed us to release this letter: pic.twitter.com/yJoZHoAgJn— Peter O'Brien (@OBrienSolicitor) July 26, 2016
