Teenagers who unsuccessfully sued the NT Government over tear-gassing to take their case to the High Court of Australia
FOUR teenagers who were tear-gassed at Don Dale detention centre in 2014 plan to take their case to the High Court
Crime and Court
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FOUR teenagers who were tear-gassed at Don Dale detention centre in 2014 plan to take their case to the High Court.
The teenagers — three of whom are serving jail time and one of whom has a warrant out for his arrest — were in March 2017 awarded between $12,000 and $17,000 in damages over minor acts of mistreatment in detention, including the improper use of spit hoods.
The bulk of the teens’ claims failed, and their pursuit of the case backfired, when they were ordered to pay much of the Territory government’s court costs.
Those costs have never been publicly revealed and are unlikely ever to be paid, but easily dwarf the compensation awarded.
The award of relatively minor compensation figures followed the teens’ refusal of $150,000 settlement offers.
The teenagers, who can’t be named, have also been ordered to pay a chunk of the government’s court costs stemming from their failed appeal.
In the Court of Appeal on Monday, the teens’ barrister, Kathleen Foley, said that the legal team she was a part of was preparing an application for the case to be heard in the High Court.
Footage of the four teens being tear-gassed formed much of an ABC 4 Corners documentary, the broadcast of which prompted then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and then chief minister Adam Giles to announce the Royal Commission into the Detention and Protection of Children.
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The Supreme Court in 2017 found the tear-gassing was “reasonable and necessary” and that guards called in from the adult prison did not have a “reasonably available option to use less force, without risking the safety of detainees and staff”.
The ruling that the tear gas was “reasonable and necessary” survived appeal, despite a vigorous challenge from the teens’ legal team.
Ms Foley on Monday did not detail the teens’ grounds of appeal or when the special leave application is likely to be filed in the High Court.
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