A Northern Territory youth prison guard accused of assaulting former teen inmate Dylan Voller will face the juvenile justice royal commission for a second day.
Derek Tasker, an Alice Springs detention centre guard, was charged and then acquitted of assaulting Voller over an incident in 2010.
Footage of the youth justice officer holding the then 13-year-old down by the neck as he was stripped naked in his cell shocked the nation when it aired on television last year.
On Tuesday, Mr Tasker denied allegations from former youth detainee Jamal Turner that he assaulted the boy and that staff denied inmates food.
Mr Tasker, who’s worked in NT youth detention for 20 years and is the current Alice Springs training officer, said a lack of female staff at the facility was a major concern.
This shortfall means often a male guard must accompany a woman to strip search girl inmates.
Mr Tasker said there’d been more than 20 escapes from the facility recently, and last week one of three escapees had to be hospitalized after police set dogs on them.
It comes after explosive allegations that several guards sexually harassed girls and boys in detention yet continued to work with the children.
On Tuesday, a former acting general manager of NT Youth Detention told the inquiry that complaints were made in 2008 about a male guard who flirted with a female detainee, saying she was “legal” or old enough to consent to sex.
John Fattore said the Alice Springs officer also made numerous inappropriate remarks about the size of one boy’s genitalia, remarking that he was “well hung”.
An internal investigation only began after he was alleged to have sexually harassed a female staff member.
One Don Dale Detention Centre guard, a bodybuilder, had 18 complaints made against him between 2002 and 2006, the inquiry heard.
Senior management transferred the guard to canteen duties away from children for violent and inappropriate behaviour.
Counsel assisting the commission Peter Callaghan SC then questioned how the guard was allowed back in the centre “as a loose cannon”.
