A First Nations teenager is pacing around a sparse concrete room.
Warning: This story contains graphic depictions of violence.
It’s August 7, 2023, and he’s locked up inside a police watch house in Brisbane’s south.
The 17-year-old – who we’ll call Jason for privacy reasons – is having a break from his adjoining cell in an exercise yard.
There’s no fresh air or sunlight.
His cell contains two benches, a sink, a thin mattress and blanket.
He’s been at the Richlands watch house for five days after being arrested and remanded in custody on multiple charges, including car theft.
Police watch houses are designed to detain adults for up to three days — including murderers and sex-offenders — while they’re awaiting court or prison.
“The watch houses are an awful environment for a child, primarily because of its harsh, cold nature,” said Katherine Hayes, CEO of the Youth Advocacy Centre providing legal representation to Jason.
A commissioner at Queensland’s Family and Child Commission, Natalie Lewis, agrees.
“Things that are absolutely fundamentally necessary for the development of a child or young person are more often absent from those environments,” Ms Lewis told 7.30.
“So it’s a particularly cruel form of custody … it’s harmful.”
Jason calls out to his brother who is detained in a separate part of the watch house.
He stands at the window gesturing and lies down, calling out under the door.
“He got locked up with his brother … they were just talking and being funny for their mental health,” said Jason’s mother, who we’ll call Rachel for privacy reasons.
“They’re locked in a little shoe box and he’s just trying to kill his time.”
CCTV also shows him doing push ups and lying on a mattress on the floor.
Police use the intercom to ask him to stop yelling out.
“I understand he became abusive towards the guards, but the guards are nowhere in sight,” Ms Hayes said.
Two police walk down the hall to the door and ask him to move back into his cell.
Jason starts to comply, moving part of his mattress back into the room and coming back for his blanket.
The two officers enter the room, one wielding a baton.
Jason swears at the police. He doesn’t physically lash out.
Within six seconds, he’s in a head lock.
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An officer strikes him with the baton three times until his legs give way and he falls to the floor.
His left arm is twisted up behind his back. A third police officer comes in to help restrain him.
The police force him to the ground on his stomach and handcuff his hands behind his back.
They escort him back into his cell, before an officer pins him to the bench with his knee.
He’s locked in the cell and they take off his handcuffs.
The incident lasts for around two minutes.
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Commissioner Natalie Lewis has seen the footage and labelled the use of force as “abhorrent” and “distressing”. She has called for a more transparent and comprehensive investigation.
Advocates ‘sickened’ and ‘appalled’ by footage
The Youth Advocacy Centre is supporting Jason and his family.
“I was shocked and horrified that here in Queensland in 2023 police officers are treating a young Aboriginal boy in this way with no reason for self-defence,” Ms Hayes said.
Jason’s mother agrees the use of force was excessive.
“It’s really confronting. I don’t hurt my children, so what gives anybody else a right to be physically violent?” she told 7.30.
Rachel said yelling out to others in the watch house and swearing at police did not justify the “heavy force” used.
“He didn’t deserve to be assaulted the way he was assaulted.”
Reverend Aunty Alex Gator is an elder and former prison chaplain who has long advocated for First Nations people in the criminal justice system.
She said that she was “sickened” and “appalled” by the incident and wants the police involved “brought to justice”.
“I would like to meet with those three policemen face-to-face and I want to ask them, why?” Aunty Alex told 7.30.
“I would like to see them stood down.”
Police charged Jason with assaulting and obstructing police over the incident but later withdrew the charges.
‘Lawful and reasonable’
Jason made a complaint to the Queensland Office of the Public Guardian’s community visitor program, which provides statutory oversight of the treatment of children in police watch houses.
He alleged the police used excessive force by choking and striking him with a baton.
The complaint was lodged with police’s Ethical Standards Command.
The investigation — overseen by the state’s corruption watchdog — found the use of force was lawful and reasonable.
Chief Superintendent Rhys Wildman oversees South Brisbane district and has backed the officers involved, saying the “offender actually grabbed the officer around the waist”.
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“To use three individuals to restrain one person … reinforces the level of aggression that the officers were facing at that particular moment,” Chief Superintendent Wildman said.
When questioned why force was used despite the teenager not lashing out, he said the teenager’s “behaviour” justified it.
“I won’t go into the details around the language but there were complaints from other … individuals in the watch house … and the officers had to make the decision to relocate that young person into that cell.”
The chief superintendent said the police spoke to the teenager before they entered the room, including over the intercom.
“On this occasion, unfortunately, that young person did not calm down and the actions of the officers had to be conducted,” he told 7.30.
He said no one was injured during the incident.
‘That’s not who he is’
Jason is currently in youth detention on remand for further charges, including robbery.
He told his social worker from the Youth Advocacy Centre that he wakes from nightmares of the incident and he doesn’t feel safe in watch houses because he feels that it could happen again.
He told her that he wants the police officers involved to lose their jobs and that children should not be detained in watch houses.
Rachel also said she’d like to see the police officers involved stood down.
“A lot of people would think that he is just a rough little kid, and in black and white, it says that, but that’s not who he is,” Rachel said.
“If he sees somebody and he knows they’re doing it tough, he will give them whatever’s in his hand.
“We don’t drink, no parties, no drugs. [Our home is] an environment for the children, a place where they feel safe … I pride ourselves on the love that we have at our home.”
She says Jason began to struggle after she and his father separated when he was 12.
At that time, she says Jason disengaged from school and she struggled to get support from organisations to pay for other activities, such as sport.
“Times were just really tough financially … it was myself looking after other children,” she said.
“I just feel like it would have helped release some of … the pain that he was going through with the split of his father and I.”
Since then, Jason has lost his dad, an uncle and his best friend to suicide.
He’s had multiple stints in police watch houses and youth detention for dozens of offences, including robbery and car theft.
“Along the way, there’s been no healing for him,” she told 7.30.
“I think he just has become good at masking that hurt and pain and just being somebody else … he just had to grow way before his time.”
Children owed a duty of care
Ms Lewis has written to various bodies about the incident, including the Queensland Ombudsman and Queensland Police Service.
“That’s violence, violence against a child … whether they’re 10 years old or 17 years old,” Ms Lewis said.
“This is a child in an environment where they are owed a duty of care.
“The child is entitled to exactly the same expectation that we would have for any victim of violence, and that is that they are listened to and that they’re heard.”
A growing problem
Queensland’s youth detention centres are full, forcing children to be held in police watch houses, sometimes for weeks.
In 2019, a Four Corners program revealed shocking incidents involving children in watch houses.
The Palaszczuk government promised to fix the problem but the past 18 months have seen numbers at a five-year high.
The state’s youth justice department told 7.30 that since January the numbers of young people in watch houses have reduced and a new remand facility will be open at the end of the year.
“In my last experience, there were 21 children in a watch house, and every single face that I saw was an Aboriginal boy … and that is heartbreaking,” Ms Lewis said.
Aunty Alex Gator said the government should be made accountable for its treatment of First Nations children, like Jason.
“We talk about truth, we talk about reconciliation and closing the gap,” she said.
“This is not closing the gap. This is not treaty. Reconciliation means making it right.”
Rachel said while it’s not “an excuse” for their behaviour, many of the children are “broken”.
“I think it’s important for people to understand and speak up for these children. They’re crying out for help,” she said.
“Who’s there listening to them?”
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