A major class action has been launched over allegations of physical and sexual abuse of children detained at the Parkville Youth Justice Precinct over more than 50 years.
Dozens of guards at the youth correctional facility are accused of having conducted unlawful strip searches of teenage boys, who were also subjected to beatings, solitary confinement and sexual assaults, according to a writ filed against the state government in the Supreme Court.
The court documents include harrowing details of guards allegedly encouraging and sometimes paying young detainees to fight each other, while other staff allegedly failed to intervene or report assaults to authorities.
The legal case coincides with a surge in youth crime across Victoria and unprecedented pressure on the state’s juvenile correctional facilities.
The class action was filed last month by Melbourne solicitor Angela Sdrinis, who was involved in a similar claim on behalf of 129 former detainees at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre in Tasmania which was settled for $75 million in 2024.
Sdrinis said the Victorian claim would apply to former detainees who suffered abuse between 1973 and 2023 at the Parkville Youth Justice Precinct, which was known as the Turana Youth Training Centre until 1993.
“The class action will address alleged systemic operational and governance failures that have left children at Parkville vulnerable to abuse by staff and co-detainees,” Sdrinis said.
“Many class members also allege abuse by other detainees. The prevalence of child-on-child abuse has been reported as significant and a continuing problem in youth detention.”
She said a series of government reviews and the royal commission into child abuse had previously identified widespread mistreatment of detainees at the Parkville facility, while a recent report by a United Nations working group had raised broader concerns about youth detention in Australia.
The royal commission found systemic failures at the state-run youth facility which involved a regime of punishment against inmates, physical and sexual abuse by staff members and a failure to protect vulnerable children.
One of the lead plaintiffs in the class action, who was given the pseudonym CN in court documents, alleges he was sexually assaulted on three occasions by a unit supervisor in 2011 when he was aged 15.
He claims he was also forcibly strip-searched, repeatedly beaten by other guards and placed in isolation as punishment, while also offered inducements to assault other detainees.
“Various officers provided CN with contraband, including cigarettes, drugs and alcohol as a bribe to encourage CN to be physically violent towards and ‘beat up’ other detainees of the officers’ choosing,” the writ alleges.
CN said his life spiralled downwards after his release from the Parkville site in 2013, when his drug use escalated in response to the psychological trauma.
“Parkville wasn’t set up in any way to help kids or to help them turn their lives around,” he told The Age. “They weren’t trying to help us rehabilitate, and I think that’s why kids like me were stuck going in and out of the system from a young age.
“The youth workers at Parkville had a duty to look after us, but they didn’t. We should have been able to trust them, but we couldn’t because of the way they treated us.”
A second plaintiff in the class action, referred to as DH, alleges he was also sexually assaulted by the same unit supervisor who allegedly abused CN.
DH, who was aged 17 at the time, was told by the senior guard that if he did not “stop struggling and making this hard for me, I will bend you over”, according to legal documents.
It is alleged that DH was assaulted up to 20 times by guards while he was held at Parkville in 2014.
“DH was physically restrained by various officers responding to detainee incidents, who would physically batter DH and use excessive force. DH would be punched, thrown around and have his arms twisted,” the court documents claim.
DH was also attacked by other detainees and rushed to St Vincent’s Hospital, securing release from Parkville a short time later because of the severity of his injuries.
But he claims he was never offered support or counselling and continues to be haunted by the abuse he experienced as a teenager.
“Being an adult now, I struggle to be able to accept what happened to me. I don’t think my life would have been so negative if I didn’t go through what I went through as a kid in youth detention,” DH said.
Sdrinis said the state failed in its duty of care to protect children at Parkville from physical and psychological harm. She said her clients would pursue damages, including aggravated and exemplary damages, and expects others to join the class action.
The Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office is yet to file a defence to the claim.
The Department of Justice and Community Safety Victoria said in a statement:
“We take the safety and wellbeing of our staff and young people in youth justice extremely seriously. Alleged incidents in the youth justice system are routinely referred to Victoria Police for investigation. It would be inappropriate to comment further.”
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