Dylan Voller is an Aboriginal-Australian man who came to public attention after his detainment in a youth detention center in the Northern Territory was documented on a July 2016 episode of the ABC TV program Four Corners . [1]
As of 2016, Voller had a troubled early life, and had been expelled and or excluded from primary schools in Alice Springs due to assaulting others, including breaking another child's arm in kindergarten. Dylan was in and out of juvenile detention since he was 11 years old, for car theft, robbery and assault. [2] He spent time at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin, [2] Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre [3] and, aged 17, at Alice Springs adult prison. During that time he has been involved in more than 300 prison incidents of, self harm, assault on staff and others (some requiring hospitalisation of victims) since he was jailed for aggravated robbery and endangering a police officer in 2014. Voller has served two of the three sentences given to him over a drug-fuelled crime spree in which he attacked a man and tried to run down a policeman. He spent time in Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre and the behavioral management unit at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin. Dylan has a long history of self harm and suicidal actions requiring intervention by staff in juvenile facilities. During that time he was restrained by the neck, was at eleven years physically thrown into his cell, isolated, stripped naked and tear gassed. [2]
Footage of Voller shackled to a restraining chair within the adult Alice Springs correctional center was featured on the ABC TV program Four Corners' episode "Australia's Shame" in July 2016. [4] It prompted Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to announce a royal commission into the treatment of youth in the child protection and youth detention systems in the Northern Territory. [5] Mistreatment in youth detention had been widely reported prior to the Four Corners report. [6] [7] [8]
He has publicly apologised for his crimes. [1]
Voller gave limited evidence at the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory in December 2016. [9]
He was released from prison in February 2017 [10] and has been advocating for improved conditions for youth in detention. [11]
In 2017 it was discovered that Voller's confidential files were dumped at the Alice Springs rubbish tip. [12] Footage of Voller was posted on Facebook on a Fairfax media account and derogatory comments were made on the post by others. [13] [14] Voller subsequently sued Fairfax media for defamation. [15] [14] Social Media Consultant Ryan Shelley testified as an expert witness and illustrated that it was within Fairfax media's power to remove the defamatory comments. [13] [16] The Judge ruled that Fairfax media's failure to remove the comments was grounds to hold Fairfax liable for defamation. [14] [17]
In September 2021, the Australian High Court ruled that media companies could be held liable for allegedly defamatory material posted to their social media pages. [18] Voller's case returned to the lower court for determination. This area of law is currently being reviewed by the Attorneys-General of the Federal government and each State and Territory. [19] In response to the decision in Voller's case, the Federal Government has drafted the Social Media (Anti-Trolling) Bill. Which if enacted will clarify defamation law within the context of social media. [20]
In 2019, the 21 year old Voller plead guilty to staging a bomb hoax at the Commonwealth Games marathon in Gold Coast. [21] On 1 February 2020 Voller was sentenced to a 10-month prison sentence due to an incident in which he jumped on railway tracks, exposed his penis and assaulted a transit guard in Western Australia. [22] Voller also had a warrant issued for his arrest by the Deniliquin Local Court in NSW on 19 June 2020 in relation to an armed robbery that occurred in Moama, NSW in May 2019. [23]
The Don Dale Youth Detention Centre is a facility for juvenile detention in the Northern Territory, Australia, located in Berrimah, east of Darwin. It is a detention centre for male and female juvenile delinquents. The facility is named after Don Dale, a former Member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 1983 to 1989 and one-time Minister for Correctional Services.
The Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre formerly known as Alice Springs Juvenile Holding Centre is an Australian medium to maximum security prison for juvenile males and females located in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.
Johan Wessel Elferink is an Australian politician. He is a former member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly for the Country Liberal Party.
Yuendumu is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia, 293 km (182 mi) northwest of Alice Springs on the Tanami Road, within the Central Desert Region local government area. It ranks as one of the larger remote communities in central Australia, and has a thriving community of Aboriginal artists. It is home to Pintubi Anmatjere Warlpiri (PAW) Media, which produced the TV series Bush Mechanics.
Berrimah Prison, was an Australian maximum security prison formerly located in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. The centre was managed by Northern Territory Correctional Services, an agency of the Department of Justice of the Government of the Northern Territory. The centre detained sentenced and charged felons under Northern Territory and/or Commonwealth law.
Crime in the Northern Territory is managed by the Northern Territory Police, the territory government's Department of the Attorney-General and Justice and Territory Families.
Brian Ross Martin is an Australian jurist. He was a judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia before being appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in 2004. He served in the Northern Territory between 2004 and 2010. He served as an acting Judge of the Supreme Court of Western Australia in 2012. In legal texts, he is referred to as "Martin (BR) CJ" to avoid confusion with his predecessor.
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Michael Patrick Francis Gunner is an Australian politician and was the 11th Chief Minister of the Northern Territory from 2016 to 2022. He is a Labor member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, having held his seat of Fannie Bay in Darwin since the retirement of then Chief Minister Clare Martin at the 2008 election.
The 2016 Northern Territory general election was held on Saturday 27 August 2016 to elect all 25 members of the Legislative Assembly in the unicameral Northern Territory Parliament.
Punishment in Australia arises when an individual has been accused or convicted of breaking the law through the Australian criminal justice system. Australia uses prisons, as well as community corrections, When awaiting trial, prisoners may be kept in specialised remand centres or within other prisons.
This is a list of electoral results for the Electoral division of Barkly in Northern Territory elections.
"Australia's Shame" is the title of an episode of the long-running Australian investigative journalism and current affairs program Four Corners, which aired on the ABC on 25 July 2016. Written by ABC journalists Caro Meldrum-Hanna and Elise Worthington, and reported by Meldrum-Hanna, the episode depicted the treatment of minors at the Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre, located in the Northern Territory. Accompanied with graphic footage, the episode documented the experiences of individuals as they stayed at the centre's "Behavioural Management Unit" (BMU) maximum security cells, set in a timeline from 2010 to 2015. It featured interviews with Northern Territory Minister for Correctional Services John Elferink, various lawyers, and both former Northern Territory Children's Commissioner Dr. Howard Bath and current Commissioner Colleen Gwynne.
Juvenile detention in the Northern Territory is administered by Territory Families, since a departmental reorganisation following the Labor victory at the August 2016 Northern Territory general election. Juvenile detention is mostly operated through two facilities - the Alice Springs Juvenile Holding Centre in Alice Springs, and the Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre in eastern Darwin. These had previously been administered by the Department of Correctional Services. A juvenile is a child between the age of 10 and 17.
Mount Riddock Station is a 2,633 square kilometre cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is managed by Steve and Rebecca Cadzow. They run Poll Herefords on the property, which has organic certification.
Chanston James "Chansey" Paech is an Australian politician. He is a Labor Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 2016, representing the electorate of Namatjira until 2020 and Electoral division of Gwoja thereafter. He is of Arrente, Arabana and Gurindji descent.
Hamilton Downs Station was a cattle station west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is now a youth camp.
The COVID-19 pandemic in the Northern Territory is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
Charles Arnold Walker, for cultural reasons known as Kumanjayi Walker since his death, was a Warlpiri man who was shot and killed by police while resisting arrest in the remote Aboriginal Australian community of Yuendumu, Northern Territory in November 2019. Walker as he resisted arrest initially stabbed Constable Zachary Rolfe. Rolfe subsequently fatally shot him and was charged with murder three days later, but was acquitted in March 2022. Thousands of people rallied in Alice Springs in the days following the attempted arrest, and further protests followed in capital cities around Australia. After the acquittal of Rolfe a campaign entitled "Justice for Walker" has continued.