Northern Territory Government to pay $1 million damages to former Don Dale inmates

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Northern Territory Government has been ordered to pay nearly one million dollars in damages to former inmates of the Don Dale youth detention centre who were tear-gassed in 2014. After years of legal battles, a supreme court justice has found the gassing was unlawful.

Transcript

00:00 The damages relate to an incident that happened at the notorious Dondale Youth Detention Facility

00:06 nearly 10 years ago.

00:09 Officers were using tear gas on an inmate when four other inmates also became exposed

00:14 to the gas during that same incident.

00:17 An original trial found that that exposure was lawful, which led to the four former inmates

00:21 challenging that decision in the Court of Appeal, but that was dismissed.

00:26 And in 2020, the High Court upheld that appeal, which left it to the NT Supreme Court to determine

00:31 what damages would be owed by the government.

00:34 They settled on a figure of nearly $1 million split between the four former inmates, who'll

00:39 be given more than $200,000 each.

00:42 In awarding the damages, Justice Jenny Blockland said the plaintiffs were, for the most part,

00:47 bystanders and that they were treated with callous disregard as to their rights by the

00:52 guards.

00:53 She also deemed it a contravention of an offence provision of the Weapons Control Act.

00:58 The Northern Territory Government now has up to three weeks to pay the plaintiffs their

01:03 damages.

01:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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