‘I can never be happy’: Young man reveals horrific rape while locked up at Ashley Youth Detention Centre

A teenager raped at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre was forced to leave Tasmania and says his life has been forever altered. His story is just one of over a hundred included in a new class action.

A YOUNG man who was raped at Ashley Youth Detention Centre says he doubts he’ll ever achieve his dream of becoming a dad, or even find happiness in his life.

Rowan*, now 28, is one of four lead plaintiffs in a class action that has just been lodged with the Supreme Court of Tasmania.

He said he spent four years in and out of Ashley from when he was about 13 years old – and was raped by a fellow detainee at age 14.

“He raped me, he taunted me for an hour and a half,” Rowan told the Mercury.

He said he was set up by staff, who left him alone and unsupervised while the torture unfolded.

Afterwards, he was given no medical help, no psychological support – nothing other than the taunts of fellow detainees.

He attempted suicide just four days later.

Rowan made a formal complaint, with his rapist charged and given a three-year jail term, but he himself became the brunt of threats and abuse for being a “dog” who dobbed in a fellow detainee.

The Ashley Youth Detention Centre, near Deloraine.

“People were saying ‘you dog, we’re going to get you’.”

He’s since moved interstate to start a new life outside Tasmania, focusing on his career and starting his own business.

“I had no choice but to move – I had death threats, I had my house smashed up,” Rowan said.

“I didn’t feel safe because I charged someone, I put someone in prison.

“I’m still suffering for it because I can never return home. The whole of Launceston knows – there’s not one person that doesn’t know about it. I still get bullied over it – they’re trolls.”

Rowan said since leaving Ashley, he felt unable to ever settle down with a partner and have children.

“I can never have a partner in life, I can never be happy,” he said.

“I’ve never been able to have kids, that was my dream to have kids. I can’t – I feel like I’m going to be violated again.”

Sadly, Rowan experienced even more trauma during his time at Ashley.

He said his best friend died at age 17 while incarcerated at the facility due to medical neglect.

“He’d had a bad car accident. He came in, complained he was sick, complained he couldn’t breathe properly,” Rowan said.

He said his friend couldn’t get any help and was ultimately found deceased in his unit.

Still to this day, Rowan says he wakes up “in sweats”.

“It’s taken its toll on me. I just want to be normal, I want to have a partner, I want to be able to have a normal life,” he said.

“The nightmares are there, it doesn’t get any easier.”

He said he hoped the class action against the State of Tasmania would lead to justice – with the Ashley staff involved finally held accountable for their actions.

“I want individuals punished and action to be taken,” he said.

* Name changed to protect identity.

If you or a loved one is struggling, further support is available:

Lifeline Australia – 13 11 14

Beyond Blue – 1300 22 46 36

Rural Alive and Well – 1300 4357 6283

Kids Helpline – 1800 551 800

Class action lodged by ex Ashley Youth Detention Centre detainees

ONE hundred and five former Ashley Youth Detention Centre detainees have officially taken action against the State of Tasmania for abuse and sexual assaults suffered while under lock and key.

On Friday, the class action – the first of its kind ever in Tasmania – was lodged in the Supreme Court of Tasmania.

Law firm Angela Sdrinis Legal said the plaintiffs had been subjected to “systemic negligence” at Ashley as far back as 1961, and as recently as December 2019.

The case alleges the State of Tasmania, which runs the beleaguered facility, failed to take reasonable care in its selection and supervision of staff – resulting in staff being hired despite links to outlaw motorcycle gangs or other criminal groups.

The plaintiffs also allege staff members were hired despite having allegedly committed sexual or physical abuse against children in the past.

According to the statement of claim lodged with the court, the plaintiffs allege instances in which Ashley staff encouraged detainees to attack each other.

They also describe painful and degrading strip-searches, forcibly-applied scabies cream that burned their genitals, neglect of medical treatment and the use of isolation and beatings as punishment tools.

One plaintiff in the statement of claim said after refusing to perform oral sex on a staff member, he was “punched and knocked out” by other staff members, requiring hospitalisation at Launceston General Hospital.

Another former detainee said after “an incident of misbehaviour during an education session”, he was dragged across the yard by four guards and thrown onto a wooden bed, where he was “held down with pressure to his neck until he lost consciousness”.

He said he woke three hours later, naked and handcuffed, and given no medical help.

One of the plaintiffs said he repeatedly attempted suicide while housed at Ashley, while another said he managed to escape before an Ashley staff member chased him to a nearby river and held his head under water until he thought he’d drown.

One plaintiff said after he fought off a sexual assault by a staff member, he was knocked unconscious and left naked in an isolation cell for five days.

“The history of Ashley Youth Detention Centre, in its various names, is notorious and tragic,” lawyer Angela Sdrinis said.

She said although the Tasmanian government had offered compensation schemes in the past and there was now a National Redress Scheme covering children abused in Tasmanian state institutions, “our clients do not regard these schemes as fairly reflecting the trauma inflicted on teenagers held at Ashley”.

Angela Sdrinis is one of the chief lawyers leading a class action against the State of Tasmania for child abuse at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

The law firm encouraged anyone else who had been abused or neglected to come forward.

The class action is the first of its kind in Tasmania under a new legal mechanism.

The Supreme Court previously used other systems to deal with large group claims, such as the 2021 Dunalley bushfire case, which used a test plaintiff in the trial.

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