Ashley Youth Detention Centre class action: 33 more people join historic case

One of the biggest cases in Tasmanian legal history has just grown even bigger — with dozens more former detainees joining the historic Ashley Youth Detention Centre class action. LATEST >>

Ashley Youth Detention Centre near Westbury in northern Tasmania.

ONE of the biggest cases in Tasmanian legal history has just grown even bigger - with another 33 people joining the historic Ashley Youth Detention Centre class action.

On Friday, barrister Lachlan Armstrong KC, representing the plaintiffs, told the Supreme Court of Tasmania that more former detainees may still come forward to join the lawsuit.

Law firm Angela Sdrinis, which is acting on behalf of the now 138 plaintiffs, said in a statement a trial was not expected until mid-2024.

“However we hope the state will enter into discussions with us without the need to go to trial, so we can get compensation for these 138 former detainees without the further trauma and delay of going to trial,” principal solicitor Rowena Macdonald said.

The plaintiffs are suing the state of Tasmania for negligence, alleging they were subject to a range of horrific abuse, neglect and sexual assault while incarcerated at the troubled Deloraine facility.

During Friday’s administrative hearing, Mr Armstrong and Trevor Moses - acting for the state of Tasmania - disputed the next steps to be taken in the massive case.

The state of Tasmania has made a request for further and better particulars in the plaintiffs’ statement of claim, meaning the government wants additional information about the allegations before fully handing over Ashley’s records.

“Until we have some certainty about those things, we can’t evaluate which records we have that might be relevant to this pleading,” Mr Moses said.

But Mr Armstrong said lawyers for those plaintiffs needed the government’s documents before they could provide that additional information.

He said many of the plaintiffs had suffered harm years ago as teenagers, and needed the documents to refresh their memories about specifics like dates and the staff members involved.

“You can’t provide the particulars until they provide the discovery, so we’re going around in circles,” Justice Michael Brett noted.

The judge adjourned the issue, ordering both sides to attempt to come to an agreement within 21 days.

A trial date for the class action - the first-ever to be held in Tasmania - has not yet been set.

If the matter does proceed to trial, rather than settling beforehand, lawyers for the plaintiffs hope to use the issues of four former detainees to create a “template” on how to appropriately compensate the remaining litigants.

In documents previously lodged with the court, the plaintiffs make various claims, including that they were forced to perform oral sex upon staff members, were bashed to the point of unconsciousness or required hospitalisation, or being left alone and naked in isolation cells for days.

The matter will return to court at a date to be fixed.

In a separate legal battle, the workers compensation case of Ashley whistleblower - known only by her first name of Alysha - has settled.

Alysha made the announcement earlier this week on Twitter, following a “tooth and nail” stoush with the Tasmanian government she said retraumatised her and forced her to undergo numerous “gruelling psychiatric evaluations”.