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NT prison scandal deepens with claims boys forced to fight for food

The Northern Territory's juvenile prison scandal is getting worse with claims children behind bars were forced to fight for food and eat bird droppings.

Just days after the ABC aired damning footage of boys being hog-tied, stripped naked and assaulted, there’s fresh claims guards at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre made child prisoners bash each other for extra food.

Footage of the abuse at the NT centre. Source: ABC
Footage of the abuse at the NT centre. Source: ABC

“I’m not privy to what happens with the Northern Territory corrections system – I mean obviously the reporting on Monday night was shocking and of great concern,” Justice Minister Michael Keenan said.

NT Corrections Minister John Elferink was sacked in the wake of the explosive vision going to air. The Territory’s prisons are now under the control of Adam Giles.

But evidence has also emerged that Mr Giles declared on the record he was prepared to break the United Nations Convention on the rights of prisoners.

Mr Giles' statement in 2010. Source: 7News
Mr Giles' statement in 2010. Source: 7News

In 2010, Mr Giles declared if he was Prisons Minister, "I would build a big concrete hole and put all the bad criminals in there. I might break every United Nations' convention on the rights of the prisoner.”

Footage of prisoner Dylan Voller restrained and wearing a "spit hood" in juvenile detention has gone around the world.

Dylan Voller. Source: 7News
Dylan Voller. Source: 7News
Dylan Voller. Source: 7News
Dylan Voller. Source: 7News

The 19-year-old has spent half his life in jail but this week wrote a letter "to thank the whole Australian community for the support you have showed".

He was wanted to "apologise to the community" for his wrongs... and that "he can't wait to get out and make up for them.

Three of the prison officers involved in his juvenile abuse continue to guard him in an adult jail.

“He’s told me he’s scared for his safety, he needs to be release immediately,” Mr Voller’s lawyer Peter O’Brien said.

“That sort of level of abuse is systemic and it goes right from government down.”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Wednesday ruled out a wider inquiry and said the Royal Commission will only focus on failings in the Northern Territory, despite claims of more violence against juvenile inmates in North Queensland.