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Dylan Voller’s Mother Breaks Her Silence Over Her Son’s Treatment In NT Detention Centre

'I feel like I failed him by ringing the police that day...'
ABC/Four Corners

The mother of Dylan Voller, the boy at the centre of the shocking Four Corners investigation into the treatment of children at the Don Dale Detention Centre in Alice Springs, has broken her silence.

Speaking to ABC’s 7:30, Joanne Voller admits her son was troubled but feels she “failed” him by contacting the NT Department of Children and Families for help when Dylan was 11. 

“That was the time when he broke my window and I was told if I reported him for breaking my window he’d get the help that he needed,” she said.

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“At the time he needed counselling to help with his anger issues, but it’s not what he received in jail.

“If I had of done something like they did to my son and that was in the name of caring for my child I’d be in jail right now, so I don’t know what they expected me to do to care for my child.

“I was seeking help, I was asking for help. I in no way thought he would be hooded and chained to a chair or thrown in isolation for 200 days at a time. I don’t see that as counselling or helping him.”

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“I really feel like I failed him by ringing the police that day when he broke my window, to be honest.”

Voller was the boy seen in the ‘spit hood’ and strapped into a mechanical restraint in the chilling footage released by Four Corners in July. 

The troubled teen has a history of offenses, in and out of detention for half of his life, he is now serving time in an adult jail.

Youth justice advocate and Dylan’s case worker, Antoinette Carroll, told 7:30 Dylan had not received the care he needed.

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“As soon as he entered into early childhood his needs had to be identified,” she said. “His mother was very proactive in trying to get therapeutic supports in place, which is why she contacted the department.”

“I’d like to think that it will be bright and it will be wonderful but gee, it’s a lot of long-term abuse and early childhood abuse to recover from,” she continued. “Dylan knows he’s got a lot of love in his life, lot of family support, community support, but at the end of the day hopefully that will carry him through.”

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