“I’m lucky that I’m not dead, lucky that I survived and I’m here to tell the story of what had happened,” says Gary Glover, a Sydney man who experienced extreme sexual, emotional and physical abuse while under the care of Reiby Youth Justice Centre, highlighted by ABC’s recent feature on the centre.
Gary is one of many Australians who have experienced negligence while at a juvenile detention centre. We’ll examine the current movement of detention centre victims coming out with their stories and your rights if you’re a victim.
Reiby Youth Justice Centre and others like it
Located near Campbelltown, New South Wales, the Reiby Youth Justice Centre was opened in 1973 as the Reiby Training School. Although it began as an all-girls delinquent centre, it became coeducational in 1991.
In 2020, adults — both men and women — began coming out about their abusive neglect and trauma experiences at the detention centre. The abuse involved child sexual assault and manipulation by the staff members of authority using their power over the inmates who had nowhere else to go.
Glover and many others are telling their stories of how the sexual abuse has impacted their adult lives in terms of partnerships, loving relationships, trust and even holding jobs.
Investigators found that many detention centres in NSW held similar dark histories. These survivors initiated the Royal Commission investigation into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse’s final report, detailing the five-year culmination of inquiry into such abuse.
The result of the Royal Commission’s investigations brought forth not only the horrors of abusive reform centres, but also knocked the authority of big institutions back down to size.
Child sexual abuse is intolerable, and if you or someone you know has experienced mistreatment at Reiby or any other detention centre, you should know your rights. Let’s look at the process and amendments you could receive by coming forward.
Your rights as an institutional child sexual abuse survivor
Because of the changes in laws across Australia, there are no statutes of limitations on when you can file a claim against an institution or a child sexual abuser. However, it’s important to make a claim as soon as possible before details of the abuse begin to slip away and it grows harder to remember the facts like names and dates.
Under the National Redress Scheme, sexual abuse survivors are the only eligible people that can make a claim. Yet, anyone aware of the abuse can lodge a concern with the Child Abuse Report line. The Redress Scheme will help claimants not only win compensation, but psychological support and therapy to process the events.
Types of compensation you could be eligible for include:
- Loss of past and future earnings.
- Future expenses incurred.
- Treatment costs, including therapy.
- Loss of quality of life.
Each person’s experience is different, but Gerard Malouf & Partners (GMP Law) can help you come to a resolution within 14 months of filing a claim. We will gather a team of expert child sexual abuse lawyers to get you the due justice you deserve. While we know that compensation will not make up for the horrific experiences you may have had while at the detention centre, we will ensure you get the best legal representation possible.
To get started or to set up your no-obligation consultation, contact a Gerard Malouf & Partners lawyer today.
