Ashley Youth Detention Centre class action starts preparing for Supreme Court trial

The Ashley Youth Detention Centre class action – the first of its kind to be held in Tasmania – has begun the long process of preparing for trial. See what happens next.

THE long process of preparing for Tasmania’s first-ever class action trial has begun.

On Monday, lawyers representing 105 former Ashley Youth Detention Centre residents appeared in the Supreme Court of Tasmania to thrash out a structure for an upcoming trial – which is still many months away.

The plaintiffs are suing the state of Tasmania for negligence, alleging they were subjected to a range of horrific physical and sexual assaults, abuse and neglect while under lock and key of the state-owned-and-operated facility.

Lachlan Armstrong KC, representing the plaintiffs before Justice Michael Brett, said the legal team planned to visit and inspect the youth facility on October 11.

Mr Armstrong said the plaintiffs’ legal team had identified a number of “structural or thematic problems” in how Ashley operated.

When the matter ultimately reached trial, he said, it would focus on four main plaintiffs and how the problems at Ashley impacted them.

Mr Armstrong said the trial would look at what was proper process at Ashley at the relevant times, compared to what was the actual process at those times, and whether any shortfall amounted to negligence at law.

He said a resolution to the issues of the four main plaintiffs would create a “template” for the state of Tasmania to appropriately compensate the remaining 101 former detainees.

Ashley Youth Detention Centre. PICTURE CHRIS KIDD

“It’s not going to be practicable for the court at the initial trial to resolve all of the issues for all of the group members,” Mr Armstrong said.

“Instead Your Honour’s ruling for the four main plaintiffs will involve a resolution of the common issues.

“At the end … the parties will be able to engage in productive settlement discussions for all of the group members.”

Mr Armstrong said the four main plaintiffs covered off many years of Ashley’s operations, so the court could analyse appropriate and actual practices at the youth detention centre in various decades – the 1990s, the 2000s and the 2010s.

The state of Tasmania is yet to file its defence with the court.

Both sides will return to court for another pre-trial administrative hearing on February 24 next year.

First court hearing for Ashley class action case

THE Ashley Youth Detention Centre class action case – which has been years in the making – will have its first court hearing on Monday.

The case is being waged by 105 former detainees who are suing the state of Tasmania for alleged abuse, neglect and horrific sexual assaults suffered while locked up at the Deloraine facility.

The matter is not yet listed for trial.

Instead, Monday’s Supreme Court of Tasmania hearing will be the first of what may be several directions hearings – administrative court appearances – before the class action is ready to be listed for trial.

The hearing, before Justice Michael Brett, will likely canvass the next steps in the case, the filing of the state’s defence to the plaintiff’s claims, exchange of documents and inspection of the facility by the plaintiff’s legal team.

“At this early stage, the proceeding is moving smoothly and progressing in the usual way,” law firm Angela Sdrinis legal – which is representing the plaintiffs – said in a statement on Friday.

Ashley Youth Detention Centre near Westbury in northern Tasmania.

“We call upon the Tasmanian government to move quickly to resolution and to do so in a trauma-informed way.”

The firm alleges the plaintiffs, whose names have been anonymised to protect their identities, had been subjected to “systemic negligence” at Ashley as far back as 1961, and as recently as December 2019.

In documents lodged with the court, the plaintiffs have alleged an array of horrific abuse, including being forced to perform oral sex upon staff members, being bashed to the point of unconsciousness or requiring hospitalisation, or being left alone and naked in isolation cells for days.

Ashley Youth Detention Centre near Westbury in northern Tasmania.

A lead plaintiff said he was raped by a fellow detainee when he was just 14, claiming he was set up by staff, who left him alone and unsupervised while the torture unfolded.

The plaintiffs will be represented on Monday by Lachlan Armstrong KC, Ben Slade and Regina Weiss.

Mr Armstrong is described as a class action specialist who has appeared in more than 100 class action or multi-plaintiff proceedings, including the 2021 Dunalley bushfire case.

Mr Slade conducted the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre class action, which last year settled for $35 million.

Ms Weiss recently returned to the Tasmanian Bar, having spent nine years prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court at The Hague between 2007 to 2016.

The Ashley Youth Detention Centre is also being examined as a key institution of concern in Tasmania’s child sexual abuse commission of inquiry, which completed public hearings on Tuesday.

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