# Breaking The Silence

An episode of [Badge of Betrayal](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1852919243), 18 Jan 2026, 41 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/fbab9570-a7a3-4fd4-a673-b3940044b1b8/76f5795e-cb96-4a4d-aeac-b3d400731f9f/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=2f1fa4b5-119b-41b5-8749-b3940044b5a4

Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussions of alleged child sexual abuse and institutional violence. Some content may be distressing. Listener discretion is advised. Support resources are listed in the show notes. In this episode of Badge of Betrayal, we return to Alysha, the whistleblower who helped expose abuse at Tasmania’s Ashley Youth Detention Centre. For the first time, we also hear from a former detainee, now an adult, who speaks anonymously about his experiences inside the centre. His voice has been altered and identifying details removed. This conversation was approached with care, expert guidance, and a clear public-interest purpose. It explores power, accountability, and the lasting impact of institutional failure while centring the courage it takes to speak when silence once felt safer. If this episode is triggering, please pause and seek support. • Lifeline: 13 11 14 — https://www.lifeline.org.au • Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800 — https://kidshelpline.com.au • 1800RESPECT: 1800 737 732 — https://www.1800respect.org.au If you have information that you would like to share, email us anonymously at podshape@proton.me See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:10] Speaker 1: This is a trigger warning. In this episode, we speak
[0:13] Speaker 1: of allegations of child sexual abuse and its graphic in
[0:16] Speaker 1: some parts. Listener discretion is advised. If you need help,
[0:21] Speaker 1: there are links in the show description. Welcome back to
[0:27] Speaker 1: Badge of Betrayal. In this episode... We're going to reintroduce
[0:31] Speaker 1: you to Alicia. She was the whistleblower that helped uncover
[0:35] Speaker 1: atrocities at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre in Tasmania.
[0:38] Speaker 2: It's likely would have remained a dark secret, but for
[0:42] Speaker 2: the courage of brave whistleblowers. One of them is Alicia,
[0:46] Speaker 2: and she's made the tough and dangerous decision to speak
[0:50] Speaker 2: up and shine a light on this disgrace. She's done
[0:53] Speaker 2: it because she knows no matter the cost or consequence,
[0:56] Speaker 2: there is nothing more important than protecting children.
[1:00] Speaker 1: What I'm hoping to get from our conversation is some
[1:04] Speaker 1: answers to some questions that I still have around Reynolds
[1:08] Speaker 1: and if he ever visited the centre. Did he or
[1:12] Speaker 1: others take young boys out of the centre? And how
[1:15] Speaker 1: was the centre policed? Would it have been easy for
[1:19] Speaker 1: someone who had power like Reynolds to come and go
[1:23] Speaker 1: as he pleased? In an earlier episode, you heard our
[1:32] Speaker 1: current serving police officer in the Tasmanian Police talk about
[1:36] Speaker 1: Ashley Youth Detention Centre. He told us there was a
[1:40] Speaker 1: high probability that Reynolds would have visited. We also heard
[1:44] Speaker 1: that the medical part of Ashley's was easier back in
[1:47] Speaker 1: the day to move between because there weren't any cameras
[1:51] Speaker 1: in that area. That came from the James Griffin inquiry
[1:55] Speaker 1: and Alicia, who worked at the centre. We also heard
[1:58] Speaker 1: stories that Reynolds would appear with young boys at the
[2:01] Speaker 1: Deloraine Football Club and say they were street kids whose
[2:05] Speaker 1: parents were on drugs and he was just helping them out.
[2:09] Speaker 1: It's important to note that the Weiss Report into Reynolds'
[2:12] Speaker 1: offending found no evidence that Reynolds abused boys at the
[2:17] Speaker 1: Ashley Youth Detention Centre. The reason I want to look
[2:23] Speaker 1: into this is that Reynolds... is very much linked to
[2:27] Speaker 1: the town of Deloraine for a period of time. He
[2:31] Speaker 1: worked at the Deloraine Police Station in 2012, and that
[2:35] Speaker 1: police station is the closest to the centre. We've heard
[2:39] Speaker 1: that Reynolds was attending the Deloraine Football Club. He did
[2:42] Speaker 1: some of his offending there. Reynolds lived on Meander Valley
[2:46] Speaker 1: Road at the police station, literally on the same road
[2:50] Speaker 1: as the detention centre. And the football club at Deloraine
[2:55] Speaker 1: backs on to the centre via a slip road. Now,
[3:02] Speaker 1: we thought long and hard about how to tackle a
[3:05] Speaker 1: conversation of this magnitude. We consulted those who know how
[3:09] Speaker 1: to approach these types of topics in a trauma-informed way.
[3:13] Speaker 1: We also have to acknowledge the current law, which prevents
[3:16] Speaker 1: us from naming a victim survivor of Ashley Youth Detention Centre.
[3:21] Speaker 1: Although the Let Her Speak movement made some much-needed changes
[3:24] Speaker 1: to law, there are still some challenges with anyone that
[3:28] Speaker 1: was at the centre being allowed to be named in public,
[3:32] Speaker 1: even if they do it themselves and even though they're
[3:35] Speaker 1: now an adult. Up until now, the person you're about
[3:38] Speaker 1: to hear from had a voice, but it was only
[3:41] Speaker 1: on paper, and we felt that hearing that voice, hearing
[3:45] Speaker 1: the pain, the suffering and the anger about what happened
[3:49] Speaker 1: to them is in the public interest. We've changed this
[3:53] Speaker 1: person's voice and won't name them or use the pseudonym
[3:57] Speaker 1: they were given in the Commission of Inquiry, which is
[3:59] Speaker 1: on public record. To handle this conversation properly, I want
[4:03] Speaker 1: to introduce you to Alicia again, who's going to help
[4:06] Speaker 1: me navigate this difficult topic. At times in the conversation,
[4:11] Speaker 1: it might just be Alicia and this person to allow
[4:14] Speaker 1: them to be comfortable in a trusted setting. Remember, these
[4:17] Speaker 1: two have known each other for over five years. There's
[4:20] Speaker 1: also a significant trigger warning in this episode, so please
[4:24] Speaker 1: be careful listening and seek help if you need it.
[4:28] Speaker 1: There are links in the show notes. Alicia, I want
[4:35] Speaker 1: to ask you first, given that you worked at the
[4:37] Speaker 1: Ashley Youth Detention Centre, is it unusual for you to
[4:41] Speaker 1: be supporting someone that was in the youth centre and now,
[4:45] Speaker 1: and you're no longer working there? Is this unusual?
[4:48] Speaker 3: Absolutely.
[4:49] Speaker 4: I've never obviously been in a situation that myself and
[4:56] Speaker 4: this young person and other young people find ourselves in.
[4:58] Speaker 4: I will add that this young person is an adult now,
[5:03] Speaker 4: which is obviously important.
[5:06] Speaker 3: But very unusual. I typically could.
[5:10] Speaker 4: Never think of reason why I would need to or
[5:13] Speaker 4: feel the need to stay in touch with or assist
[5:17] Speaker 4: a former young person that I've worked with.
[5:20] Speaker 1: Can I ask a question without notice? So why? Why
[5:26] Speaker 1: are you doing it?
[5:27] Speaker 4: When I became a witness for the Commission of Inquiry
[5:32] Speaker 4: and provided very, very extensive evidence, I felt like it
[5:39] Speaker 4: was ethically wrong to not notify as best I could,
[5:45] Speaker 4: if it was possible, any young people that were, that
[5:51] Speaker 4: I would be mentioning, obviously de-identified in evidence. Obviously, I
[5:55] Speaker 4: was under a subpoena, I had no choice, but also
[5:57] Speaker 4: I feel like it if there was a way to
[6:02] Speaker 4: let them know that that was the right thing to
[6:04] Speaker 4: do so that when that report was handed down, if
[6:08] Speaker 4: by chance anyone read it, they didn't get a terrible shock. Unfortunately,
[6:14] Speaker 4: that didn't actually happen in this case. This young person was.
[6:19] Speaker 3: I.
[6:20] Speaker 4: Had not been able to reach and he was watching
[6:25] Speaker 4: 60 Minutes and recognised some of the content and.
[6:32] Speaker 4: Then reached out to me and we've been in touch
[6:36] Speaker 4: ever since. And I have become, well, I've always been
[6:42] Speaker 4: invested very much in the young people at Ashley, but
[6:47] Speaker 4: this one in particular has just shown extraordinary courage and
[6:54] Speaker 4: courage determination and integrity in spite of having survived some
[7:00] Speaker 4: of the worst things that I think most of us
[7:04] Speaker 4: could ever imagine and I admire them very, very much.
[7:10] Speaker 4: They've become one of my personal inspirations actually and it's
[7:18] Speaker 4: obviously an unusual situation to be in and But I
[7:23] Speaker 4: look back over the last six or so years that
[7:25] Speaker 4: we've now known each other and now as both adults
[7:29] Speaker 4: and in a very different situation to me being a
[7:35] Speaker 4: staff member when they were within the centre, I.
[7:39] Speaker 3: Think that I would have packed.
[7:41] Speaker 4: It in at various points if it weren't for this
[7:44] Speaker 4: young person and their strength, giving me strength to keep going.
[7:51] Speaker 4: He's an extraordinary person and has been through hell and
[7:57] Speaker 4: continues to want to help to make the system better,
[8:01] Speaker 4: which I find unbelievably impressive.
[8:07] Speaker 1: How did that make you feel hearing that, mate?
[8:09] Speaker 5: Um... Cool and obviously bad, obviously. Nothing should have happened.
[8:15] Speaker 5: None of this ever should have happened, but it's good
[8:18] Speaker 5: that there's people like Alicia to help out and I'm
[8:21] Speaker 5: glad that she did. Every time something bad happens, I'll
[8:24] Speaker 5: ring Alicia straight up and it's definitely handy and it
[8:28] Speaker 5: helps me, I guess.
[8:29] Speaker 1: Can I first say thanks for coming on and sharing
[8:31] Speaker 1: your story? We really appreciate it and we, like you,
[8:36] Speaker 1: are hoping that we can change some things that are
[8:40] Speaker 1: happening in Tasmania. Firstly, can I ask the broad circumstances
[8:44] Speaker 1: that led to you being sent to the Ashley Youth
[8:47] Speaker 1: Detention Centre, just in broad strokes?
[8:50] Speaker 5: A lot of petty theft, obviously. Just a lot of petty,
[8:55] Speaker 5: petty crimes, stealing crimes, burglary crimes. And I was..... this
[9:01] Speaker 5: old when I went there, so... Like, you know what
[9:04] Speaker 5: I mean? Little things added up and then eventually I
[9:07] Speaker 5: was with a friend. This is the charge that ended
[9:11] Speaker 5: up letting me there. Hey, the police pulled me in
[9:14] Speaker 5: for it. I ended up running and like, well, I
[9:20] Speaker 5: ran first obviously before getting pulled in and then running
[9:24] Speaker 5: all night through the bush everywhere and then ended up
[9:27] Speaker 5: getting arrested, charged for it ultimately and then sent to Ashley's.
[9:33] Speaker 1: In our off-air conversation, I learned that this person was
[9:36] Speaker 1: never sentenced for this alleged crime. He was actually only
[9:39] Speaker 1: on remand in the detention centre. Before you arrived there,
[9:44] Speaker 1: what did you know about it?
[9:46] Speaker 5: Not much, because people that go there don't really like
[9:49] Speaker 5: talking about it because shit things happen. I was in
[9:52] Speaker 5: a pretty half-decent family growing up.
[9:55] Speaker 3: Absolutely.
[9:56] Speaker 5: I went to school, so we never really, I'm never
[9:59] Speaker 5: in a crime family, so no one in my family
[10:02] Speaker 5: went to Ashley's, so I didn't hear about it.
[10:04] Speaker 4: I remember you telling me about your mate warning you
[10:08] Speaker 4: or something at some point, maybe in the car, maybe
[10:12] Speaker 4: in the car ride.
[10:13] Speaker 5: Yeah, so when you get remanded in custody, you go
[10:19] Speaker 5: back down to the cells where you wait to go
[10:21] Speaker 5: to court, Richard Putre, And you wait for transport because
[10:26] Speaker 5: Ashley's from Hobart, so it's like a half-hour drive. And
[10:31] Speaker 5: you have to get picked up from a Wilson car.
[10:34] Speaker 5: They have to come from up there, so he's sitting
[10:36] Speaker 5: there for probably four or five hours waiting for me.
[10:39] Speaker 5: And then I knew I was going there the whole
[10:41] Speaker 5: four or five hours, and I got put in a
[10:43] Speaker 5: cell with * * * * * *. He was
[10:44] Speaker 5: going there too. And he was been there once before.
[10:50] Speaker 5: And I was crying my eyes out, scared, shit scared.
[10:53] Speaker 5: And it was like, oh, you'll be right, mate, you'll
[10:55] Speaker 5: be right. And then, like, he obviously didn't tell me much.
[11:00] Speaker 5: I tried asking, and then when we was on our
[11:02] Speaker 5: way out, when we, he said, oh, yeah, here we go, mate,
[11:05] Speaker 5: you better, like, buckle in, it's going to be a
[11:07] Speaker 5: long ride. Are you getting out? Are you getting out?
[11:10] Speaker 5: Do you want to try and get out, mate? I thought, yeah,
[11:14] Speaker 5: that's pretty shit. And then I started crying, you know,
[11:17] Speaker 5: and then I held it together because I thought, I'm
[11:19] Speaker 5: not going to end up crying.
[11:23] Speaker 3: Did he tell you anything about what to expect?
[11:28] Speaker 5: Obviously, no one talks about the, everyone's embarrassed to talk
[11:34] Speaker 5: about the sexual abuse, of course, but the, like, every
[11:40] Speaker 5: day getting mouthed off, the bashings, like getting in the
[11:44] Speaker 5: usual stuff. And I just thought that's fair enough. Then
[11:48] Speaker 5: wasn't too worried about that. Of course I was worried,
[11:50] Speaker 5: but not. Yeah, I couldn't have imagined how bad it
[11:54] Speaker 5: actually was.
[11:56] Speaker 3: Worse than what you thought?
[11:58] Speaker 5: Way worse. A million times worse.
[12:01] Speaker 1: A reminder, this conversation might be triggering for some people,
[12:04] Speaker 1: so I'd like to place another caution here. If you're listening,
[12:08] Speaker 1: it will get graphic in parts. It's important to know
[12:11] Speaker 1: that we've also edited some parts of this chat, as
[12:14] Speaker 1: we can't, even though this person has given their permission,
[12:18] Speaker 1: give details about them. What was that first day like
[12:21] Speaker 1: inside the centre?
[12:23] Speaker 5: Oh, as soon as you– you never expect– especially as
[12:29] Speaker 5: a male, you never expect to get assaulted, especially– you never–
[12:34] Speaker 5: like even in the remand centre, they're pretty– like they
[12:37] Speaker 5: strip search out, but it's pretty– it's half decent. They're
[12:41] Speaker 5: not too bad about it, but as soon as you
[12:43] Speaker 5: walk in there, it's straight off, like straight off the bat.
[12:47] Speaker 5: get your clothes off. There's no privacy. They search every
[12:51] Speaker 5: nook and cranny. I mean, look, they stick their fingers
[12:56] Speaker 5: up your ass to check if you've got stuff hiding
[12:58] Speaker 5: up your ass. And then they use them same fingers
[13:01] Speaker 5: and put them in your mouth to make sure you're
[13:02] Speaker 5: not hiding stuff in your mouth.
[13:05] Speaker 3: I'm so sorry.
[13:06] Speaker 4: It never gets any less distressing to hear about this stuff.
[13:10] Speaker 3: But for what it's worth, Jay, this.
[13:13] Speaker 4: Is– that's yeah unfortunately that is the truth and it
[13:22] Speaker 4: is absolutely repugnant um yeah.
[13:27] Speaker 1: I want to check before we go any further and
[13:30] Speaker 1: you don't have to answer anything you're not comfortable with
[13:32] Speaker 1: and we can stop and pause at any time i.
[13:35] Speaker 5: Feel like obviously i don't like talking about it no
[13:37] Speaker 5: one likes talking about it.
[13:38] Speaker 4: This only stays in the dark until enough to speak
[13:44] Speaker 4: and you're doing it and other people will follow and
[13:48] Speaker 4: you will.
[13:49] Speaker 3: Yeah. This will help make change. Everything you've done will.
[13:54] Speaker 5: Yeah, Tasmania's a shit place, let me tell you.
[14:00] Speaker 1: While you were at Ashley, did you personally experience abuse?
[14:06] Speaker 5: Every day, every single day. As soon as, when you're
[14:10] Speaker 5: coming into Ashley's, you go through the Sally Port in
[14:13] Speaker 5: the car and you pull up out the front of admissions.
[14:17] Speaker 5: I walk straight into admissions and that's literally into a cell,
[14:23] Speaker 5: like 10 foot steps away. And that's when the strip
[14:27] Speaker 5: search just happened and all the shit that goes with it.
[14:31] Speaker 3: It started immediately.
[14:32] Speaker 5: Yeah. And they like to let you know. We're bots.
[14:36] Speaker 5: As soon as you walk in, they want to let
[14:37] Speaker 5: you know, like, where you're in my house, and they
[14:41] Speaker 5: let you know in the worst ways you can imagine.
[14:44] Speaker 1: Was this offending physical, sexual, emotional or all of the above?
[14:49] Speaker 5: All of the above. Just even just small things like
[14:56] Speaker 5: just the mouth and the constantly getting spoken down to,
[15:01] Speaker 5: like that is such a shit feeling. And that's a
[15:05] Speaker 5: good thing now, you know what I mean? Like that's...
[15:08] Speaker 5: I call his only mouth off to me is that
[15:09] Speaker 5: he's not doing something worse. It gets to everyone, trust me, definitely.
[15:14] Speaker 5: It's not good.
[15:16] Speaker 4: Some of the worst things that you've described to me were.
[15:21] Speaker 3: Not during the course of, I guess, the typical day
[15:24] Speaker 3: at Ashley.
[15:26] Speaker 4: They were during the night and when people shouldn't have
[15:29] Speaker 4: even been on site and those sorts of things as well.
[15:33] Speaker 3: So there must have been probably.
[15:42] Speaker 3: Not be on guard.
[15:44] Speaker 5: When you feel safe, when you feel safe when you're
[15:46] Speaker 5: locked in your cell and that's like shit. When you're
[15:50] Speaker 5: locked in your cell, you're meant to feel shit, but
[15:51] Speaker 5: in there you feel safe, like even though you've come
[15:55] Speaker 5: to find out you're not.
[15:57] Speaker 4: There was a lot of instances actually where young people
[16:00] Speaker 4: would self-isolate, what we call self-isolating for their own safety reasons.
[16:06] Speaker 5: I've never, they never broke any bones. They just hit
[16:09] Speaker 5: you and drag you around, headlocks, choke you. They always
[16:13] Speaker 5: made it, do it in a way where it wouldn't,
[16:16] Speaker 5: always wouldn't hit you in the face because it's noticeable
[16:18] Speaker 5: when you're walking around with marks on your face. And
[16:21] Speaker 5: when there's, when the people are in, like the office
[16:23] Speaker 5: people there, they'll see that. And like, just overpowering you. Like,
[16:30] Speaker 5: always overpowering you.
[16:32] Speaker 3: They seem to.
[16:36] Speaker 5: Young people yeah they'll do it in front of everyone
[16:39] Speaker 5: else so you feel like a complete idiot like so
[16:43] Speaker 5: you feel because everyone wants to be the toughest bloke
[16:45] Speaker 5: in there and you get put on your ass by
[16:49] Speaker 5: a worker or a screw whatever you want to call
[16:52] Speaker 5: them um in front of all the boys you feel
[16:54] Speaker 5: like a dickhead and also like when you don't do
[16:58] Speaker 5: what they say which is usually how it starts all
[17:02] Speaker 5: them just mean them um And you don't listen to
[17:07] Speaker 5: what they say. Sometimes I just go take it to
[17:11] Speaker 5: way too far. Yeah. Like my first time getting assaulted,
[17:16] Speaker 5: I was talking to someone, another inmate, and this was
[17:21] Speaker 5: in the breezeway.
[17:23] Speaker 4: The breezeway is one of the areas that was a
[17:26] Speaker 4: no-camera zone, Jay. So it was a terrifying– if you
[17:29] Speaker 4: went through the breezeway, you knew you were in a
[17:32] Speaker 4: world of trouble typically.
[17:34] Speaker 5: Yeah, stay away from– as far away as you can get. But, yeah,
[17:39] Speaker 5: I was walking through talking to another– you might remain
[17:44] Speaker 5: the Tony or whatever everyone's called. I was talking to–
[17:49] Speaker 5: person for too long and he's he said come on
[17:54] Speaker 5: mate and i said yeah wait i'm talking to him
[17:57] Speaker 5: someone i knew very well on the outside and it
[18:00] Speaker 5: was a female so i was making sure she was
[18:01] Speaker 5: all right because of the shit that happens in there
[18:04] Speaker 5: you know what i mean like and i i was
[18:09] Speaker 5: just making sure and i didn't walk into the unit
[18:12] Speaker 5: fast enough so he dragged me into the unit in
[18:16] Speaker 5: front of everyone or into where the cells are, which
[18:20] Speaker 5: you can see from the unit, and just choked me out.
[18:26] Speaker 5: It would be on camera too. Choked me out, dragged
[18:29] Speaker 5: me in the cell, kicking me and everything. Yeah. Yeah,
[18:33] Speaker 5: choked me, hit me, kicked me. Oh, and that was
[18:36] Speaker 5: the first time as well, first time ever. That was
[18:38] Speaker 5: my first admission.
[18:40] Speaker 4: Oh, my God, that is just– Yeah, I thought.
[18:43] Speaker 5: I was going to die when he dragged me in
[18:46] Speaker 5: the cell.
[18:47] Speaker 1: The person we're talking to has sent photos of them
[18:50] Speaker 1: on their first week at Ashley Youth Detention Centre and
[18:54] Speaker 1: they look like a child. It's also actually disturbing looking
[18:58] Speaker 1: at how young this boy looked and how innocent they
[19:02] Speaker 1: were after just entering their teens. Yes, they committed a crime,
[19:08] Speaker 1: but to hear the horrors that happened at that centre
[19:11] Speaker 1: really rams it home.
[19:13] Speaker 4: Did you think that someone would help or did you
[19:15] Speaker 4: know at that point that no one was.
[19:17] Speaker 3: Going to help?
[19:18] Speaker 5: I knew no one was going to help just because
[19:21] Speaker 5: when he dragged me in the cell, there was no
[19:23] Speaker 5: one around after that. Everyone's seen him dragging me into
[19:27] Speaker 5: the cell.
[19:28] Speaker 1: Could you, and this is a bit of a dumb
[19:31] Speaker 1: question but I want to ask it, could you report
[19:34] Speaker 1: it to someone? Could you report it to someone in
[19:37] Speaker 1: the centre?
[19:37] Speaker 5: No. No, even if you did report it, it has
[19:42] Speaker 5: to go through, like the way you report it, it
[19:46] Speaker 5: has to go through certain hands and usually those are
[19:50] Speaker 5: the hands where they just get rid of it and
[19:52] Speaker 5: if they think that it's going to go, if they
[19:54] Speaker 5: ever think that, oh, maybe this, she might go over
[19:58] Speaker 5: my head or maybe he might go over my head,
[20:04] Speaker 5: they'll just get rid of the footage. If you ever
[20:06] Speaker 5: get out and want to... They can walk into the office,
[20:10] Speaker 5: get rid of the footies, get rid of the paperwork
[20:12] Speaker 5: whenever they want and they will, they do.
[20:14] Speaker 4: I can definitely, that is on the public record from
[20:19] Speaker 4: commission evidence that documents that I provided regarding this young
[20:24] Speaker 4: person actually were destroyed and the commission, the only originals
[20:30] Speaker 4: that were recovered were the ones that I provided and
[20:32] Speaker 4: the rest were altered and originals were destroyed.
[20:38] Speaker 5: Yeah, so they've rewritten them up in the way they
[20:41] Speaker 5: wanted them to, you know what I mean, like they're
[20:43] Speaker 5: just cunts.
[20:46] Speaker 1: There was other things that happened in Ashley at the
[20:50] Speaker 1: detention centre to you that I want to tread carefully
[20:54] Speaker 1: about talking about and they were more sexual abuse. Are
[21:00] Speaker 1: you comfortable talking to me about it or would you
[21:02] Speaker 1: like Alicia to?
[21:03] Speaker 5: I can talk about it. That's fine. Well, just obviously, and, like,
[21:13] Speaker 5: there was a class action of over 100 people saying
[21:17] Speaker 5: the exact same kind of things, obviously different circumstances happened.
[21:21] Speaker 5: There's rape. There's, like, just all, everything, rape with, like,
[21:29] Speaker 5: proper rape, like, where they actually penetrate you with their genitals.
[21:33] Speaker 5: There's them doing it with their fingers. They make, like,
[21:37] Speaker 5: You know what I mean? And it's never just one.
[21:42] Speaker 5: They'll do it. They're so smart. They'll do it in
[21:46] Speaker 5: a way where you can't. They'll be tall. They'll hold
[21:51] Speaker 5: you down. It's pure truth. You can't do anything. And
[21:57] Speaker 5: it's in yourself. They'll come in while you're asleep and
[22:00] Speaker 5: do it too. While you're asleep in bed, they'll come
[22:03] Speaker 5: in and do whatever they want with you. One of
[22:14] Speaker 5: the staff members, when everyone knew, he wasn't allowed to
[22:18] Speaker 5: be in the unit.
[22:20] Speaker 4: Did all the young people know that person was an alleged,
[22:25] Speaker 4: let's say, pedophile?
[22:27] Speaker 5: Yeah, of course. And he still worked in the unit.
[22:32] Speaker 5: So we were like, what are you doing here? You're
[22:34] Speaker 5: not allowed here. I'll do what I want.
[22:38] Speaker 4: Was that one of the people that would also be
[22:41] Speaker 4: there outside of normal hours?
[22:44] Speaker 5: All the time. He was obviously the worst of the worst.
[22:49] Speaker 5: He did whatever he wanted. Whatever he wanted. It seemed
[22:53] Speaker 5: on the shadiest shit you can imagine. Not to you,
[22:56] Speaker 5: to your mates. And when you're in there and that
[22:59] Speaker 5: stuff's happening to you, And other people, you become closer
[23:03] Speaker 5: to them people and you're like, you know, it's a
[23:05] Speaker 5: new market. So it's like, oh, that's new market. And
[23:07] Speaker 5: you know what they're going through because it happens to
[23:09] Speaker 5: you as well.
[23:10] Speaker 4: And you're doing this, obviously, that's what blows me away
[23:13] Speaker 4: about you because I know this is traumatic. I know
[23:15] Speaker 4: it will affect you tonight, tomorrow, the next few days.
[23:19] Speaker 4: It'll take a bit to come back to baseline. And
[23:21] Speaker 4: you're doing it because it's the right thing to do
[23:24] Speaker 4: and you're worried about doing the right thing and I
[23:35] Speaker 4: actually don't actually know anyone who does that to that extent.
[23:40] Speaker 5: Well, because I've obviously got people around me, not good people,
[23:44] Speaker 5: and I'm a strong-minded person. I think I can't imagine
[23:48] Speaker 5: what people that don't have no one and, you know
[23:51] Speaker 5: what I mean, people that aren't as strong-minded as me
[23:54] Speaker 5: would be going for your life. So I think people
[23:56] Speaker 5: are going to know about this and something's going to happen.
[23:59] Speaker 1: We're chatting to this former detainee to try and establish
[24:02] Speaker 1: if Reynolds... ever went to the Ashley Youth Detention Centre,
[24:06] Speaker 1: and if boys were taken on day trips out of
[24:09] Speaker 1: the centre to Deloraine and the football club, as well
[24:13] Speaker 1: as if police officers would ever visit the centre off-duty.
[24:18] Speaker 1: I also wanted to know about the cameras in the centre.
[24:22] Speaker 1: You heard the term breezeway, where there were no cameras whatsoever.
[24:27] Speaker 1: You mentioned a place called the Breezeway and there were
[24:30] Speaker 1: no cameras in that part. Were there other parts of
[24:33] Speaker 1: the centre that there weren't cameras in?
[24:35] Speaker 5: It goes forever. There's heaps of places. You can walk
[24:40] Speaker 5: wherever you want and there's no cameras really. And it's
[24:46] Speaker 5: the same when you walk out of Huon towards the gym,
[24:49] Speaker 5: no cameras in the corner down in there when you walk.
[24:54] Speaker 5: Like certain parts in the courtyard, there was no cameras.
[24:57] Speaker 5: Heaps of parts in the courtyard, there was no cameras.
[25:00] Speaker 3: In admissions?
[25:01] Speaker 5: Yeah, no cameras in admissions, no cameras in any cell,
[25:04] Speaker 5: which obviously that's for privacy.
[25:07] Speaker 3: I think that was perhaps, yeah, weaponised a little. Yeah.
[25:12] Speaker 5: Yeah. But still, look, yeah, they used that, yeah.
[25:16] Speaker 4: It blew me away, actually, how much every single young
[25:20] Speaker 4: person knew where there was no cameras because they knew
[25:25] Speaker 4: that those places were not safe. I.
[25:29] Speaker 4: Blows my mind like in the nursing corridor or the
[25:32] Speaker 4: health corridor um it was young people that told me
[25:36] Speaker 4: about that area not having cameras and stuff i i
[25:41] Speaker 4: didn't realize and.
[25:42] Speaker 5: They're so smart like that obviously they can delete the
[25:45] Speaker 5: camera footage whenever they want but a lot of the
[25:48] Speaker 5: time i didn't they just waited they'll act all lucky
[25:50] Speaker 5: if something happened an incident and they were they would
[25:53] Speaker 5: feel they would wait a couple days around acted like
[25:55] Speaker 5: something's all good and then you'd walk towards you know
[25:58] Speaker 5: i mean going to health going to the gym and
[26:00] Speaker 5: you're going past the spot with no cameras and then
[26:03] Speaker 5: bang it kicks off and you're in big trouble remember
[26:07] Speaker 5: the other day when this happened or they never they
[26:09] Speaker 5: don't say remember this i just fucking give it to
[26:12] Speaker 5: you but you know what it's.
[26:13] Speaker 4: About yeah i remember you telling me once that one
[26:17] Speaker 4: person um One of the most terrifying things about them,
[26:21] Speaker 4: and they were sexually and physically abusive from memory, was
[26:24] Speaker 4: that they would just flip instantly from, like, being nice
[26:29] Speaker 4: and calm to, like, cruel and violent and sadistic in
[26:34] Speaker 4: two seconds.
[26:35] Speaker 3: And it was, you never knew what was going to
[26:38] Speaker 3: happen next.
[26:39] Speaker 5: Exactly. And with the selfie and, like, There was a
[26:44] Speaker 5: policy that always has to be two people, two officers
[26:49] Speaker 5: in a cell or workers in a cell at one time.
[26:53] Speaker 5: So there's one watching the other worker, but that was
[26:58] Speaker 5: the biggest, that's two people against one. They don't even
[27:03] Speaker 5: give you a chance.
[27:04] Speaker 4: There's this meeting that happens every week, Jay, called the
[27:11] Speaker 4: CST meeting. to the Dellerine Football Club, for example, would
[27:18] Speaker 4: be discussed. And we discussed every incident and every resident,
[27:24] Speaker 4: the management team, every Monday.
[27:27] Speaker 3: And then it really was one of the first things that.
[27:30] Speaker 4: Struck me when I started there was that the whole
[27:33] Speaker 4: CST group, as in four or five of us management staff,
[27:39] Speaker 4: would then go around to every single young person's cell
[27:43] Speaker 4: and they would have to sit on their bed. So
[27:47] Speaker 4: obviously there's immediately a power imbalance there. There's some, you know,
[27:52] Speaker 4: we're standing over them. We're a group of powerful adults
[27:56] Speaker 4: who in many cases had abused these children. The child
[27:59] Speaker 4: was forced to sit and just listen to all the
[28:02] Speaker 4: things that they'd allegedly done wrong that week and why
[28:06] Speaker 4: they were being punished and rah-rah-rah. And I felt so,
[28:11] Speaker 4: that was before I knew anything of serious, more serious nature.
[28:16] Speaker 4: And I just felt like this is a group of
[28:18] Speaker 4: people that really thrive on power because there's no need
[28:22] Speaker 4: for five of us to.
[28:24] Speaker 3: Be in this room right now. And I remember perching
[28:27] Speaker 3: on the end of one young person's bed, which is so....
[28:33] Speaker 4: Right at the other end, there was obviously four other
[28:35] Speaker 4: adults in the room because I felt so urgently that
[28:39] Speaker 4: I needed to be on their level. They looked so scared.
[28:43] Speaker 4: And one of the workers, my colleague, said, what are
[28:49] Speaker 4: you doing?
[28:50] Speaker 3: You'll catch something.
[28:53] Speaker 4: It was the first kind of exposure I had to
[28:58] Speaker 4: how much that power was used and abused.
[29:02] Speaker 1: By Can I ask, when Alicia was talking about the
[29:10] Speaker 1: Deloraine Football Club and boys going offside, you had a
[29:13] Speaker 1: little chuckle to yourself. Can you explain why that was?
[29:18] Speaker 5: Obviously, it's just a load of shit, isn't it, Mark?
[29:24] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[29:26] Speaker 5: I never went off site because I knew what they
[29:28] Speaker 5: were like off site. I knew what they did. They
[29:30] Speaker 5: were just a bunch of shady people doing shady stuff,
[29:33] Speaker 5: having relationships with staff, doing what they did. It was
[29:38] Speaker 5: always the naughtiest inmates that got off. People that never
[29:42] Speaker 5: deserved to go off-site, they always went off-site.
[29:45] Speaker 1: If someone was to go off-site, is there a process?
[29:48] Speaker 1: Do you sign them out or do any of that stuff?
[29:52] Speaker 5: Well, they talk about it in CST, mate, but the people...
[29:59] Speaker 5: that ultimately have the power to say yes or no.
[30:03] Speaker 5: It's always the bad guys that have the power.
[30:08] Speaker 3: Was there like a sign-out process?
[30:11] Speaker 5: You don't know when you go to court. They don't
[30:12] Speaker 5: tell you the exact date. Until that day, you don't
[30:16] Speaker 5: know when you go to court because obviously there's no
[30:21] Speaker 5: documentation or nothing. You just literally jump in the car
[30:24] Speaker 5: and go home. You walk up through and you can
[30:28] Speaker 5: put your own clothes on if you want to. Your
[30:30] Speaker 5: property box goes in the car and you go.
[30:34] Speaker 4: Was that ever police or always security?
[30:38] Speaker 5: It's always, I've never gone off property with, the workers
[30:45] Speaker 5: can take you. If you get bailed, they can take
[30:47] Speaker 5: you home if they want to. I don't know if
[30:49] Speaker 5: they're allowed to, but they do. They do it all
[30:52] Speaker 5: the time. I was in Hobart, so I was far away.
[30:55] Speaker 5: But it happened all the time. People were getting bail
[30:59] Speaker 5: on the Wilson security car, didn't want to come get them,
[31:01] Speaker 5: so they'd take them home.
[31:03] Speaker 1: Do you remember seeing police attend the centre while you
[31:06] Speaker 1: were there?
[31:07] Speaker 5: Yeah, I've seen the police attend the centre when big
[31:11] Speaker 5: stand-offs happened. But if a police officer was going to
[31:15] Speaker 5: come on site and do dodgy stuff like they did,
[31:18] Speaker 5: they wouldn't come in uniform. You wouldn't know if it
[31:21] Speaker 5: was a police officer. It would never be on a
[31:24] Speaker 5: weekday because... On a weekday is when there's the people
[31:28] Speaker 5: in the office that did everything behind the scenes. And
[31:33] Speaker 5: most of those people were half decent, like Alicia, of course.
[31:38] Speaker 5: And on the weekend, there was no one, but it
[31:41] Speaker 5: was just us. And no one came. You know what
[31:46] Speaker 5: I mean? At night time, you'd see that. Like walking
[31:51] Speaker 5: around having smokes and dodgy ass people walking in the
[31:53] Speaker 5: US doing dodgy stuff. And of course you wouldn't know
[31:55] Speaker 5: who you'd done something to because they won't let you
[31:57] Speaker 5: see stuff happen to you. So you won't know. And
[32:02] Speaker 5: I'm sure that they use that as a bit of
[32:04] Speaker 5: a get out of jail freak. I don't know. And
[32:09] Speaker 5: you'd see the weirdest people come up and talk to
[32:11] Speaker 5: you about the weirdest shit, like.
[32:13] Speaker 3: As in people you didn't recognise as stuff at all?
[32:17] Speaker 5: On a... Obviously, people came in there to help you
[32:19] Speaker 5: that you didn't recognise, but on the weekends, yeah, of course.
[32:24] Speaker 3: This blows my mind.
[32:26] Speaker 5: Yeah. Like, there was weird-ass people around dinner time. It
[32:31] Speaker 5: was always coming around while we were out in our
[32:34] Speaker 5: tea and saying... disgusting stuff like i've not heard this
[32:38] Speaker 5: people that they bring on so i must i don't
[32:40] Speaker 5: know they must have been trying to impress them and
[32:43] Speaker 5: obviously vice versa with them and like they just said
[32:47] Speaker 5: shit like you know what i mean like just the
[32:49] Speaker 5: usual shit like They always thought we were disgusting. The
[32:55] Speaker 5: workers thought we were disgusting human beings. So, like, I just, like,
[32:59] Speaker 5: this shit, like, we've got diseases. Like, make sure you
[33:03] Speaker 5: wash them forks up. Don't want to tell them. Just
[33:07] Speaker 5: the shit. Just simple stuff.
[33:09] Speaker 3: So degrading.
[33:10] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[33:11] Speaker 5: And that was every day. Without fail, there was something
[33:15] Speaker 5: that they would say that was just putrid that you
[33:17] Speaker 5: would not walk past someone and say.
[33:19] Speaker 3: No, of course.
[33:20] Speaker 4: And are you saying that some of the random people
[33:23] Speaker 4: that came in were police in plain clothes?
[33:27] Speaker 5: They definitely looked like it. And they definitely spoke like it,
[33:30] Speaker 5: like all that sort of stuff. But I couldn't say 100%.
[33:34] Speaker 5: You wouldn't know. They wouldn't tell you. They wouldn't. But
[33:37] Speaker 5: you know when a cop's a cop. You can tell
[33:40] Speaker 5: the way they walk, the shoes they wear. They wear
[33:42] Speaker 5: their police shoes while they walk.
[33:55] Speaker 1: Before our chat with this young man, we were able
[33:57] Speaker 1: to show him various photos of Reynolds, both in and
[34:00] Speaker 1: out of uniforms.
[34:02] Speaker 5: To be honest with you, that many faces walk through there.
[34:05] Speaker 5: I do not try and, I don't, the only people
[34:09] Speaker 5: I can get a picture of are the ones that
[34:11] Speaker 5: are there.
[34:12] Speaker 1: You've spoken to the Commission of Inquiry. Why did you
[34:16] Speaker 1: decide now to speak publicly?
[34:19] Speaker 5: Well, like I said before, I couldn't imagine someone going
[34:24] Speaker 5: through this with no one to help them I've got
[34:28] Speaker 5: heaps of people around me to help me I've got
[34:29] Speaker 5: an awesome family awesome partner and I've got a good
[34:33] Speaker 5: life like I've got things that keep me occupied there's
[34:35] Speaker 5: people out there with nothing and nobody and I just
[34:38] Speaker 5: couldn't imagine fucking going through that and I'm strong minded
[34:42] Speaker 5: like if I was like if there's people that are
[34:46] Speaker 5: depressed like real depressing people and you know what I
[34:49] Speaker 5: mean if I was a depressing person I would kill
[34:51] Speaker 5: myself with the shit that I deal with like 100% You.
[34:56] Speaker 3: Are truly, like, one of the strongest people I know.
[35:02] Speaker 3: It's extraordinary.
[35:03] Speaker 5: I'm positive of it. I know people that have got
[35:06] Speaker 5: out of there and it's still a shit hole, yeah.
[35:10] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[35:11] Speaker 5: And obviously some of the same people are there, like,
[35:15] Speaker 5: and there's no way, they can't just change. Like, you
[35:18] Speaker 5: can't just change. Like, I've seen them doing what they did.
[35:22] Speaker 5: And there's no way they changed. That's why, especially for
[35:27] Speaker 5: how long some of them were working there.
[35:32] Speaker 1: The Commission of Inquiry made Section 34 referrals, which were
[35:36] Speaker 1: then sent on to TASPOL to investigate.
[35:38] Speaker 4: There were multiple referrals about abuse that occurred to them.
[35:45] Speaker 4: Referrals were certainly made to TASPOL.
[35:48] Speaker 5: There's obviously rock-solid evidence of stuff and they haven't done
[35:51] Speaker 5: a thing.
[35:52] Speaker 1: In 2024, a class action, the largest in Tasmanian history, ended.
[35:58] Speaker 1: People who were abused in the centre across decades were
[36:02] Speaker 1: paid out.
[36:05] Speaker 5: There's people, like I said before, there's 100-something people in
[36:08] Speaker 5: the class action, and a lot of us don't even
[36:11] Speaker 5: know each other. All saying the exact same things. That's
[36:14] Speaker 5: not a coincidence.
[36:16] Speaker 4: Last week in Parliament, the government actually said that in
[36:19] Speaker 4: response to some questions that were a bit.
[36:26] Speaker 4: Claim redress or compensation for what had happened to Ashley.
[36:30] Speaker 4: And the government said on the record that they didn't
[36:34] Speaker 4: pay out compensation or redress ever without investigating and corroborating
[36:40] Speaker 4: those stories. In terms of the class action, they accepted
[36:45] Speaker 4: full liability for the abuse that you guys had suffered
[36:50] Speaker 4: at Ashley that they believed had occurred.
[36:53] Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, well.
[37:00] Speaker 6: Emotional scenes outside the Supreme Court in Hobart as a
[37:04] Speaker 6: historic class action comes to an end. The court approving
[37:08] Speaker 6: a $ 75 million compensation payment to 129 former detainees of
[37:14] Speaker 6: the Ashley Youth Detention Centre.
[37:17] Speaker 7: Today, finally, they're being listened to, they're being heard, they're
[37:21] Speaker 7: being believed. And I can tell you that that is
[37:24] Speaker 7: probably as important, if not more important, than the monetary
[37:28] Speaker 7: compensation that they will receive.
[37:31] Speaker 4: You mentioned to me, obviously, there is endless abuse on camera,
[37:38] Speaker 4: but for whatever.
[37:39] Speaker 3: Reason, I don't actually think the police have ever looked because... Like,
[37:45] Speaker 3: why isn't everyone in jail then? They should all be
[37:48] Speaker 3: in prison.
[37:49] Speaker 4: You've mentioned that staff had cameras present.
[37:55] Speaker 5: Yeah, that people around with a phone took photos of us.
[37:59] Speaker 5: They took photos of us strip-searching us. You're innocent of kids.
[38:03] Speaker 5: You have no reason to have a phone on your life.
[38:05] Speaker 4: There is no official reason why anyone would be photographed.
[38:10] Speaker 5: So I'm pretty sure that's what happened. And he took
[38:13] Speaker 5: a photo on his phone of me standing there, you
[38:18] Speaker 5: know what I mean, probably 14, 15 years old, ass naked.
[38:22] Speaker 4: And what about when the abuse happened in the night
[38:28] Speaker 4: in your cell?
[38:29] Speaker 5: I remember feeling the phone up against me, but I
[38:32] Speaker 5: don't know. I was pinned down. I couldn't even see
[38:35] Speaker 5: a thing. I couldn't even breathe, pretty much, to be
[38:38] Speaker 5: honest with you. Trying to scream and I couldn't even scream.
[38:43] Speaker 3: I'm so sorry.
[38:45] Speaker 5: Yeah. It's pretty shit, but not much I can do.
[38:51] Speaker 5: You and I, obviously, all of them wore heaps of
[38:54] Speaker 5: cologne in that. Oh, man, I can smell it too.
[38:59] Speaker 3: I can smell it too.
[39:01] Speaker 5: Yeah.
[39:02] Speaker 4: You've decided just super recently that you're going to report.
[39:09] Speaker 7: The lot.
[39:11] Speaker 5: I've been thinking about it just because, like, I don't know,
[39:16] Speaker 5: I want to, I thought, I've been through this before,
[39:20] Speaker 5: why should I have to do it again? Like, I've
[39:21] Speaker 5: said everything, the worst that happened to me, why should
[39:25] Speaker 5: I have to do it again? Like, I don't trust
[39:28] Speaker 5: them at all. So, I don't know, I'm just kind
[39:31] Speaker 5: of playing it by ear.
[39:34] Speaker 1: I just want to check you're okay. now. I know
[39:37] Speaker 1: Alicia is going to follow up after our calls to
[39:40] Speaker 1: make sure you're okay over the stuff we've discussed. I
[39:44] Speaker 1: also want to say thanks for coming on and I'm
[39:48] Speaker 1: sorry about what happened to you, man.
[39:49] Speaker 5: Yeah, that's fine. That's not your fault. And, yeah, thanks
[39:52] Speaker 5: for having me.
[39:54] Speaker 7: The thing that is most disturbing to us today is
[39:57] Speaker 7: that we've seen since the closure of Ashley was announced
[40:02] Speaker 7: and yet to be implemented, we've had clients coming forward
[40:07] Speaker 7: who've been in Ashley in the last three or four
[40:10] Speaker 7: years who also allege abuse.
[40:13] Speaker 3: June 2025.
[40:16] Speaker 1: A former employee of Tasmania's notorious Ashley Youth Detention Centre
[40:21] Speaker 1: has been arrested over alleged serious sexual offences, including child
[40:25] Speaker 1: sexual abuse, while he was working at the centre. In
[40:29] Speaker 1: a statement on Friday, Tasmania police said a 64-year-old man
[40:34] Speaker 1: would appear in court to face charges of 11 counts
[40:38] Speaker 1: of rape, 3 counts of indecent assault and 2 counts
[40:42] Speaker 1: of indecency. after an investigation by Task Force Artemis.

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