Damages reduced for youth detention centre tear gassing
Former prisoners awarded compensation for being illegally tear-gassed at a notorious detention center have had their payments cut despite winning a High Court appeal.
Wednesday’s ruling ruled that Ethan Austral, Leroy O’Shea, Keiran Webster and Josiah Binsaris were entitled to exemplary damages but reduced the initial payout of $200,000 to $50,000 each.
However, the four were also awarded aggravated and general damages, bringing their total payout to $360,000.
The decision caps a 12-year legal battle for the four.
While he was being held at Darwin’s Don Dale Youth Detention Center in 2014, prison guards tear-gassed another inmate who escaped from his cell and damaged property.
Four prisoners, including two people with asthma, were locked in their cells and gassed.
Their cells had no windows, air conditioning or running water.
In applications to the Supreme Court, it was revealed that an officer asked “whether they should gas most of them” and a senior official replied: “I don’t care how much gas you use.”
Lawyers told the court the four, aged between 15 and 17 at the time, were then taken to the basketball court, handcuffed and made to lie face down while being watered with a hose.
The NT government defended the actions of detention staff on the grounds that the use of CS gas was permitted under the provisions of the Youth Justice Act 2005.
However, in 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that the deployment of the gas was unlawful and led to unlawful battery of the appellants.
The Don Dale center was notorious for detainee restlessness and discomfort, as well as alleged mistreatment of detainees by staff.
Wednesday’s majority decision overturned a 2025 NT Supreme Court appeal that set aside a $200,000 payment to the four in exemplary damages.
The Supreme Court granted the four’s appeal but reduced the exemplary damages award to $50,000 per person.
In a mix of general, aggravated and exemplary damages, Mr. O’Shea and Mr. Webster were awarded a total of $100,000 each, Mr. Austral $90,000 and Mr. Binsaris $70,000.
Mr O’Shea said the court victory was not just about the money.
“This is about acknowledging that what happened to us was wrong. For a long time it felt like no one was listening to what we were going through,” he said in a statement released by the Northern Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency.
“Hopefully it will help ensure things like this don’t happen to other young people in the future.”
The agency said the four fought for justice for more than a decade after being illegally teargassed, even though they were not responsible for a disturbance that led to the use of tear gas.
The agency’s civil administration lawyer Andrew Roberts said the NT government had still not apologized or held any officers accountable.
