The Aboriginal teenager at the centre of the Northern Territory's royal commission into juvenile justice was "set up to fail" by the child protection and detention system, his youth justice advocate has told the inquiry.
Footage of Dylan Voller being being tear-gassed, spit-hooded and shackled to a restraint chair while in custody shocked the nation earlier this year.
The boy who became the face of the mistreatment of young offenders in the Territory was first placed in child protection at age 10.
The 19-year-old has a long criminal history and has been in and out of youth detention since he was 11.
Antoinette Carroll, who worked with Voller for seven years, teared up when she described visiting Voller when he was aged 13 while he spent Christmas alone at Aranda House youth detention centre in Alice Springs.
"It was a very dismal place to be spending Christmas for such a young child," she said.
Ms Carroll, Co-ordinator of the Youth Justice Advocacy Project at Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service (CAALAS), said Voller was subjected to a very punitive and uncoordinated approach as he travelled through the justice system while in care.
She said Voller received an 18-month prison sentence in Alice Springs in 2011, which was "devastating" for such a low-level offender.
"Sadly diversion wasn't really made available to him, and it should have been," Ms Carroll said.
She said Voller wasn't a violent person until he was put in detention, and his numerous attempts at getting parole and being put in rehabilitation were repeatedly rejected.
The lack of therapeutic support only exacerbated his troublesome behaviour, she said.
"Essentially there was no light at the end of the tunnel," Ms Carroll said.
"That was very disempowering for him because I think he was very articulate and I think he was trying to put forward... planning strategies around post-release, and he wasn't getting much traction."
The court heard that Voller was held in solitary confinement for 24 consecutive days prior to his release, which Ms Carroll said put him back on the "merry go round" destructive cycle of reoffending.
"He was very much set up to fail," she said.
"The whole point is to ensure that a young person isn't re-entering the community a hardened criminal and then committing more crime."
The court heard Voller, who has ADHD, never received any genuine therapeutic support to address his challenging behaviour.
Dylan Voller testifying before the Northern Territory Royal Commission, December 12 2016. Source: Dylan Voller
"His care workers were somewhat helpless in dealing with his complex issues," Ms Carroll said.
Voller finished proper schooling at age 10, and Ms Carroll said there were endless barriers to getting him into mainstream education.
"It's pretty evident he's a highly intelligent young man," she said.
"No stone should have been left unturned to get him into a classroom environment with the appropriate supports in place."
Ms Carroll questioned the need for youth detention centres and instead recommended early intervention and diversionary programs as an "urgent priority".
