Keelong outrage: juvenile centre rape alleged

A 16-year-old boy residing in a juvenile detention centre for breaching an apprehended violence order has allegedly been raped by a violent offender he was housed with due to overcrowding.Juvenile Justice department sources said the centre was overcrowded because of the closure of Keelong juvenile detention centre in Unanderra last month, a decision made during the Rees government's November mini-budget. Police have charged a 17-year-old boy with the sexual assault of the teenager, who was being housed in a room with three other youths at the Frank Baxter Juvenile Justice Centre on the Central Coast when the alleged attack happened. The centre has a capacity of 120, but on the night of the alleged attack, Sunday night, 128 boys were in the centre.Normally, youths in the centre are placed one to a cell but four boys were in a temporary "overflow" room at the time of the alleged assault. The allegation is that the boy was anally raped, that the alleged perpetrator was in the centre for a violent crime and sources say another boy in the room was a sexual offender."He was in there (the room) because of overcrowding," a police source said. Police are understood to have CCTV footage of the attack. The Opposition has called for a full independent investigation into the alleged assault and how overcrowding may have led to it."These budget cuts (in juvenile justice) have, it can be argued directly, led to a young man being violently raped whilst in custody over a minor matter," the Opposition's juvenile justice spokesman Adrian Piccoli said."If you can't guarantee the safety of a juvenile inmate then they're failing in their basic requirements as a government."Something this serious as this and the overcrowding ought to be subject of a full independent investigation."Sources have said that the alleged victim would likely have been sent to the 23-bed Keelong centre if it was open, as it housed more minor offenders.Government MPs Noreen Hay and Lylea McMahon, have both called for the Keelong centre not to shut.A spokeswoman for the Juvenile Justice Minister Graham West said numbers in juvenile justice centres fluctuate from day to day and occasionally detainees will share rooms."When detainees need to share a room, a risk assessment is carried out to ensure their safety and the safety of staff."The spokeswoman said the department had recently added beds to a number of facilities.