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Dylan Voller’s confidential files among those dumped at Alice Springs tip shop

Dylan Voller had sued the publishers of the <i>SMH, The Australian</i> and Sky News Australia.

Dylan Voller had sued the publishers of the SMH, The Australian and Sky News Australia. Photo: ABC

The personal files of Dylan Voller, whose experience in youth detention sparked a royal commission, are among those of 33 clients of Territory Families accidentally dumped at the Alice Springs rubbish tip.

Territory Families has previously said the confidential files had been mistakenly sent to the tip in a cabinet during a refurbishment.

Mr Voller has shown the ABC a letter from the department’s CEO, Ken Davies, confirming his file was among them.

“My family history is not for other people’s eyes and people, and things that I’ve gone through [when I was] younger,” he said.

“Not everything is for everyone else’s eyes.”

He said the department clearly did not have appropriate strategies in place to deal with the storage and disposal of confidential documents.

“Someone should have gone through the cabinet and made sure they’ve been put into appropriate spaces before someone was even refurnishing,” he said.

‘Suspicious’  high-profile detainee’s files were dumped

Mr Voller is one of the most notorious people to have come into contact with the child protection and youth justice systems.

Images of him shackled to a chair with a hood over his head and being held down and stripped were crucial parts of a Four Corners report which led to the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, which wrapped up its public hearings last week.

Vision of the tear-gassing of six boys being held in isolation at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin in August 2014 has been obtained by Four Corners.

Mr Voller has become something of a lightning-rod for polarising public opinion on youth criminals and how the justice system should deal with them.

He has raised the question of how the confidential files of such a high-profile former detainee could be thrown away.

“I do find it a bit suspicious that out of all the files in that place that my name has popped up … they could be anywhere,” he said.

“How do we know [tip shop staff] didn’t give them to someone who doesn’t like me, with all the stuff that’s been happening on TV, and photocopied it or something like that?”

The letter from Mr Davies said 17 of Mr Voller’s documents were recovered, but it does not state how many are still missing.

“I think more needs to be done and more information needs to be given to the people whose files have been put out there,” Mr Voller said.

“How do we assure [people] that every single document has come back with every single page?”

Territory Families has been contacted for comment.

When it first announced the files had been lost, it said an external investigation had found the loss was accidental.

– ABC

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