Life and crimes of Don Dale six exposed as court order lifted

All six young offenders who were controversially teargassed at Don Dale have gone on to commit or be charged with crimes.

Former Don Dale inmate Keiran Webster.

All six young offenders who were controversially but legally teargassed to contain unrest at the Northern Territory’s Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in 2014 have gone on to commit or be charged with serious crimes.

Their offences include armed robbery, carjacking, stealing and injuring a prison officer.

Four members of the group at the centre of the $70 million Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the NT failed earlier this year to win significant compensation from the Territory government for ­alleged maltreatment in custody. Their lawyers have flagged a High Court appeal.

Three of those four, now adults, can finally be named after the ­Supreme Court of the NT lifted longstanding suppression orders yesterday. They are Josiah Bin­saris, 20, Kieran Webster, 20, and Leroy O’Shea, 22, all of whom receiv­ed jail sentences in the past three years. The identity of the fourth man, referred to as EA in court documents, remains protec­t­ed by a suppression order.

Leroy O'Shea, pictured aged 15. Picture: NT Police

Binsaris was given a 5½-year sentence, with a non-parole ­period of 18 months, last June for a three-day rampage along the Stuart­ Highway in 2017. The crime spree included theft, ramming a police car and throwing a woman from a moving car. NT Supreme Court judge Graham­ Hiley noted his ­“extensive criminal history” and said he had spent more than three-quarter­s of his life in detention or prison since turning 15. “I consider that your prospects for rehabilit­ation at this stage can only be described as poor,” Justice Hiley said.

Binsaris received a further four months’ jail in February for punching a prison guard.

In 2015, he and EA were among six teens who escaped from Don Dale by breaking through a ceiling. The pair re-entered the facility two days later by ramming a stolen car through a roller door.

In 2016, EA and another man joined EA’s older brother, who had escaped from Alice Springs jail, on a crime spree that report­edly crossed three jurisdictions. He pleaded guilty in Broken Hill in 2017 to charges including theft, travelling in a stolen vehicle and being involved in a police ­pursuit.

In deciding the four boys’ compen­sation claim against the Territ­ory in March 2017, NT Sup­reme Court judge ­Judith Kelly noted EA’s criminal history had begun at 11 and included convict­ions for assault, theft, trespass, ­aggravated unlawful entry and multiple breaches of bail. She awarded each youngster damages of between $12,000 and $17,000, which were not significantly varied on appeal. The ­appeal court awarded costs against the group.

Webster was handed a four-year sentence, with a two-year non-parole period, in June 2017 for six offences including property crimes, vehicle theft and armed robbery with a tomahawk. The court heard Webster’s ­offending began when he was 14 years old.

Josiah Binsaris.

O’Shea received an 11-month suspended sentence and good ­behaviour bond in March 2017 for aggravated unlawful use of a motor vehicle, dangerous driving and stealing. In November that year, a court ordered his sentence be restored. Dylan Voller, 21, another high-profile former Don Dale inmate who was tear-gassed, was revealed last month to be wanted for armed robbery and shoplifting. He also received a six-month suspended sentence from a Gold Coast court for a fake bomb threat made during last year’s Commonwealth Games.

In March, courts reinstated a suspended sentence handed down against the sixth boy, Jake Roper, 19, last year for offences including trespass, dangerous driving and disorderly behaviour.

The names of Voller and Roper were made public in 2016 following an application by the ABC. ­Nationwide News, publisher of The Weekend Australian, challenged suppression orders covering the remaining four youngsters.

In deciding that application, NT Supreme Court judge Stephen Southwood wrote: “Now that they are adults, there is no evidence … that identifying them with their prior offences will cause them undue hardship or prejudice.”