Northern Territory police are investigating an alleged death threat made to a former Don Dale detainee and his father.
Kenny Rogan, 14, is expecting to give evidence to the royal commission into the protection and detention of children in the NT but has been left shaken after an anonymous call to his father on Wednesday.
Colin Rogan told Guardian Australia he had received a call from a restricted number and the caller asked if he was Kenny’s father.
“I said yeah. They said, ‘Well tell that cunt dog son of yours he’s gonna cop it. We’re gonna kill him,’” Rogan said.
“I said, ‘Listen mate if you’re going to talk like that come round and talk to my face.’ He said, ‘Yeah, fat cunt, I’ll come round and kill you as well while you’re asleep, but I’ll get that cunt dog son of yours first.”
Rogan said the caller was articulate and authoritative, and didn’t sound as though he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
He called the police, who he said told him it would be easy to track the caller. NT police have confirmed to Guardian Australia that an investigation is ongoing, and it is thought to be the only such threat made recently.
In the meantime, Rogan has told Kenny not to go outside after dark. “I told him, ‘Mate, you gotta not go down to the shops after sundown.’ He’s a little bit worried about it.
“We just didn’t need it. I can handle this from anybody, I’m an adult … But children, that’s hitting far below the belt.”
Rogan said it had been difficult for his family and son amid the increased public attention after the nationwide outrage sparked by the ABC’s Four Corners broadcast, which featured Kenny as well as other detainees.
“People around Darwin and round Australia throwing their opinions on Facebook. My son just told me not long ago there was a post where somebody said, ‘It’s not so good now the shoe’s on the other foot.’
“Why would they say something like that? Are they insinuating I’m a criminal as well? Or Kenny is a bad criminal? He’s never killed hurt anybody. He’s a petty criminal. And these people think it’s OK to threaten people with their lives. It’s not OK.”
Kenny still intended to give evidence to the royal commission, Rogan said.
The teenager has been out of juvenile detention for a little over six months. He first came into contact with the justice system when he was 10 years old. Kenny told the ABC he had been stripped of his clothes with a knife while in detention, and was held in the controversial behavioural management units.
The juvenile detention crisis has divided the NT community as the government struggles to find a balance between responding to immediate concerns about the treatment of young people and the high rates of property crime.
Social media have been awash with complaints about a perceived lack of criminal sanctions against youth offenders and lack of support for victims of crime.
On Tuesday the law firm Maurice Blackburn announced a class-action lawsuit on behalf of former juvenile detainees.
The social justice class action will allege that the then children were subject to abuse, battery, and/or false imprisonment while being held in NT correctional facilities, as recently as July last year. In the statement of claim filed to the federal court was a fresh allegation of improper use of teargas against a teenager.
One lead applicant alleged he had been assaulted and handcuffed to a fence, then thrown in a cell where a female officer told him to masturbate to keep warm.
Maurice Blackburn expects hundreds of detainees may be eligible to join the class action to seek compensation for mistreatment and abuse, including beating, stripping, denial of water and prolonged isolation.
The royal commission has been extended until August this year, with public hearings restarting in March.
