Following the overwhelming response to the Four Corners investigation into the shocking treatment of children at the Don Dale Detention Centre in Alice Springs, one of the boys has written an open letter.
Dylan Voller, now 19, has released the letter through his lawyers, thanking the public for their support.
“I would just like to thank the whole Australian community for the support you have showed for us boys as well as our families,” he says in the hand-written letter, posted on his lawyer’s Twitter account.
“I would also like to take this opportunity to apologise to the community for my wrongs and I can’t wait to get out and make up for them.”
Voller was the boy seen in the ‘spit hood’ and strapped into a mechanical restraint in the chilling footage released by Four Corners on Sunday night.
The troubled teen has a history of offenses, in and out of detention for half of his life his sister, Kira Voller, told ABC radio.
“He’s been in and out of jail from the age of 11, 10,” Ms Voller said. “That’s half of his whole life.”
“I want him to know he’s still a person and people still love him and he still has hope for a life.”
A youth worker who has worked with Voller in the past says he needs serious help, and has called for more government funding, reports News Corp.
“It’s no easy journey for Dylan,” the youth worker added. “If a boy commits a crime, I’m not saying they don’t have to face the music, but where’s the duty of care? They need a place where they can be safe.”
Following the shocking expose which aired on Monday night, Malcolm Turnbull has announced a Royal Commission into juvenile detention in Northern Territory.
“Like all Australians, we are shocked by the report, by that evidence that was shown on Four Corners last night. Deeply shocked. We have moved swiftly to get to the bottom of it,” the Prime Minister told ABC radio on Tuesday morning. “We need to get all the facts out as swiftly as we can. We need to expose the cultural problems, the administrative problems that allowed this type of mistreatment to occur.”
“We want to know how this came about, we want to know what lessons can be learnt from it. We want to know why there were inquiries into this centre which did not turn up the evidence and the information that we saw on Four Corners last night. This is a shocking state of affairs and we will move quickly to establish what happened.”
