An Aboriginal teenager who was tear-gassed, spit hooded and shackled to a restraint chair in the Northern Territory's youth prison system says he was regularly "punished" by not being given access to food, water and toilets.
Dylan Voller, whose treatment sparked the NT's royal commission into juvenile justice, came out of adult jail to give evidence on Monday.
The 19-year-old said he was forced to defecate in his pillow slip after an Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre officer refused to take him to the toilet.
"I had been asking for at least four or five hours ... I was busting," he told the NT Supreme Court.
Voller described the regular practice of strip searching boys as young as 11 or 12, without explaination, he said.
A still from the ABC Four Corners episode showing Don Dale detainee Dylan Voller strapped into a mechanical restraint chair. Source: ABC Australia
"Only when I got older I realised why it was happening but the first year of me going in and out, I didn't really know what it was for, why," he said.
"They would come in, tell you to strip all your clothes off, take all your clothes off, then they wouldn't let you cover your private parts, they'd tell you you have to put your arms up in the air, turn your arms up and down, show under your armpits, like pull your ears back, put your finger in your mouth and run your finger around your gums and poke your tongue out.
"Then run your fingers through your hair and then turn around, lift one foot up, lift the other foot up, then squat and cough."
He recalled one night when he was left "with no clothes, no mattress, no sheets, no nothing, for the period of the whole night" in a cell with the air conditioning turned up.
"I was freezing all night," Voller said.
"I was pressing the button, actually crying asking for a blanket, asking for a sheet. I was that cold, my skin was going all wrinkly and shivering.
"I remember one more clearly where they left me with just the mattress, nothing else. No clothes, no jocks.
"I ended up trying to wrap myself up in the foam mattress, because it was a foam mattress, I was trying to wrap myself up with the mattress."
Voller told the commission it was not uncommon for him to be deprived of food and water as a punishment.
"I was pressing the button, actually crying asking for a blanket, asking for a sheet. I was that cold, my skin was going all wrinkly and shivering."
"There was a time in the BMU, not far from the tear gas incident where an officer walked in and gave everyone else water, because that officer didn't really like me, he said 'Do you want water, Voller?' I said yes," he said.
"As he was walking out, he threw water on to the ground and said 'There you go' and walked off.
"Because I was swearing, they'd punish me and wouldn't give me dinner.
"I'd have to wait until the next day or they wouldn't give me breakfast or lunch depending on what time of day it was.
"There was one instance where an officer seen how hungry I was in the middle of the night, he was on night-shift, come around at 1, 2 o'clock in the morning, chuck muesli bars through the hatch and said 'Here, eat' and make me toast because he could see how hungry I was.
"He didn't agree with what they did by starving me, I guess."
Voller said the inmates at Don Dale were charged "rent" which was taken out of the money they could earn each day for good behaviour.
This money went towards buying everything from underpants, shampoo and deoderant to CDs and shoes.
"If you don't buy your own underwear, the only other underwear you have the choice of wearing is the underwear everyone else wears, it gets washed, you pick out another pair, it gets washed and it goes through all of the males in Don Dale," he said.
Commissioner Mick Gooda and Commissioner Margaret White inside Dylan Voller's cell during a tour of the former Don Dale Youth Detention centre Dec 7, 2016. (AAP) Source: AAP
The inquiry comes after footage screened in July showed Voller and five other boys being tear-gassed at Darwin's notorious Don Dale detention centre two years ago.
Voller was jailed in 2014 for a violent drug-fuelled binge and told the court he was sorry for his long criminal history.
"I'm definitely not proud of it, and it's just humiliating and a lot of mistakes," he said.
"If you told them to stop they'd go hard at it, push your legs, and push you harder. To them, it was pretty much a game as well, restraining us."
Voller finished proper schooling at age 10 and has been in and out of child protection.
He said he did want to learn, but admitted his ADHD made life hard for teachers.
"It wasn't like I was doing it on purpose.... I couldn't control my behaviour with concentration," he said.
"I was sometimes too embarrassed to ask for help."
Voller said he became depressed and threatened self-harm.
"I cut my wrist on one occasion, I tied sheets around my neck at least five times to the point where I passed out and had to be taken to hospital," he said.
"There was no help in Don Dale, I was lonely, I kept being bullied from other officers and inmates."
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Prison restraint a 'game' for guards
Voller was asked about scenes that went to air on ABC Four Corners program, which published the above image of Voller in a spit hood.
Voller admitted he regularly spat at officers in a state of panic when up to four of them were holding him down and hurting him.
"Even as I was doing it I didn't plan to spit on him. It was just the reaction I had," he said.
"Would be a time of panicking because I had three or four offices holding me down and hurting me and there was no way of getting up and trying to push them off me. I couldn't tell them to stop because they couldn't care. If you told them to stop they'd go hard at it, push your legs, and push you harder. To them, it was pretty much a game as well, restraining us."
Voller said after he was tied to the notorious restraint chair he was put back into isolation while the guard responsible was still roaming the prison.
"I was bawling my eyes out because I was still scared," he said.
The court heard that guard was later charged over the incident but was acquitted and allowed to continue working there alongside Voller.
Watch Dylan Voller's evidence about this incident:
"After serving the sentence and end up coming back and he was working there again," he said.
"Scared. As soon as I see him I put my head down. I couldn't look at him."
"My heart was racing because of the tear gas, my eyes were burning, I could hardly see properly."
Voller also described having tear gas used against him, and how he put toilet paper in the lock to his cell.
"I didn't think we were going to be tear gassed. I didn't know they were allowed tear gas in Don Dale. I put it in there because I thought they were going to let the dog in."
He described why he chose to lie down with his hands behind his back.
"Because if I been standing up, they would have run in, slammed me on the back. So I was showing I was not resisting. I just wanted to get out of the situation I was in, I just wanted to get out because it was painful... My heart was racing because of the tear gas, my eyes were burning, I could hardly see properly."
Reading a statement to the commission, Voller said: "One of the biggest problems we face is that we're further punished in prison..."
"As a victim and a young man I feel upset and let down by the system that these bad things were allowed to go on for so long. I really want to see these things change that it never happens to anyone else again.
"I believe this royal commission makes sure that young people need someone to talk to, not to be locked in a cell with nothing for days on end. Trust me. I would like to thank the commissioners for visiting the old Don Dale centre and getting a real feel for how we were kept back then. I would like to thank everyone all around the world for your kind words of support."
He also spoke about the racism he has witnessed.
"On a number of occasions I have witnessed officers abusing and yelling at Aboriginal men in here and putting them down because they can't speak English properly, and that's not fair and needs to stop."
Voller will not be cross-examined despite making allegations against 31 guards. He is concerned about giving evidence while still in custody, and fears repercussions from prison guards.
Image of part of Dylan Voller's handwritten statement read out to the royal commission. From @nadiasdaly Source: Twitter
Voller was forced to wear a red shirt denoting he was "high risk" in the behaviour management system, and was told there was no way of appealing his classification.
A youth identified as AD gave confidential evidence on Friday after the NT government last week lost a bid to delay further witnesses.
Last week the commission tried to exclude local reporters from a tour of the old and new Don Dale centres with co-commissioners Margaret White and Mick Gooda, prompting the press to walk out of the hearings in protest.
Complaints from Chief Minister Michael Gunner's office eventually reversed the decision and allowed press access.
It comes as Sky News reports the commission is paying a private spin doctor more than $1100 a day amid rumblings about the need for a 12-month extension beyond the March 31 deadline.
The extension would lead to a budget blowout for the inquiry, which is being jointly funded by the NT and federal governments and is so far estimated to cost $50 million.
