Former prison guard says he was 'mucking around' in disturbing Snapchat videos with inmates
A former Northern Territory youth prison guard says he was only joking when he asked detainees to perform oral sex on him and when he urged a child to eat faeces.
Former Don Dale Detention Centre Youth justice officer Conan Zamolo said he was "just mucking around" when he dared a child to "eat s***", in a video he later posted on social media app Snapchat in 2014.
"It's just the kids goofing around. Something to pass the day," Mr Zamolo said, while appearing before the juvenile justice royal commission.
SnapChat video of Mr Zamolo asking a boy to perform oral sex on him. Picture: SnapChat
"I can see now it was inappropriate."
Senior counsel assisting Peter Callaghan slammed the faeces video and demanded to know why Mr Zamolo thought it was appropriate behavior.
“If a child were doing something like that at school, you would expect a teacher to intervene,” he said.
Sacked Don Dale guard Conan Zamolo.
“You would expect a responsible adult to prevent a child doing what appears to be a stupid thing.
“Nobody did anything to intervene.
“There’s a difference between goofing around and doing something that is clearly inappropriate as what was being done (at Don Dale).”
Mr Zamolo agreed and said he later gave the boy involved a coke soft drink to wash out his mouth.
Another clip filmed by the guard late at night shows a boy hiding under his sheet in his cell when Mr Zamolo calls out and makes a reference to fellatio.
“Oi, who wants to suck my d***? Which one of you boys wants to suck my d***?” Mr Zamolo can be heard saying to the boys in his recording.
“Come suck my d*** you c***,” he says laughing as he is told to leave.
SnapChat video taken inside the boys' toilet.
"I was actually just going to say goodnight to them because I was leaving shift," Mr Zamolo said at Monday’s hearing.
"I knew they'd take it as a joke, or I just assumed they would take it as a joke."
Other vision filmed by Mr Zamolo showed a boy looking uncomfortable while urinating in a toilet late at night, when the guard says “Oi, what are you doing, you little gay dog?”.
The boy is urinating before Mr Zamolo comes in and films him.
The guard was never disciplined for any of those incidents, but was later sacked for an unrelated matter.
“You would never walk into a public toilet, open a cubicle door and start recording a child would you?” Zamolo is asked by Mr Callaghan. “No,” he replies.
“There’s no possible explanation that would justify your recording him with any device is there? Nup.”
“The only reason why I walked in was because he was taking ages,” Mr Zamolo told the hearing.
Mr Zamolo rejected allegations from three separate detainees that he recorded a child masturbating in the shower.
Inmates had claimed they saw vision of a naked boy on Mr Zamolo's phone, but he said he only led them to believe he had done it.
“It’s the sort of thing a bully would do,” Mr Callagahan says.
“Well I’m not a bully,” Mr Zamolo replies.
Police investigated the claims but the bodybuilder was only charged with steroid possession.
He claimed the sort of language put to him was “common” between guards and the detainees, but did say he could not remember a number of specifics put to him in court.
A youth prison inmate also gave evidence on Monday, stating guards bribed kids to fight each other for junk food.
The current Don Dale detainee, identified as BN, told the inquiry officers encouraged young offenders to attack each other in areas without CCTV cameras, offering chocolate and cigarettes in return.
"Some guards had favourite detainees. They were the detainees who had fought someone that the guards didn't like," the inmate claimed.
The youth said they were allegedly put in solitary confinement for six weeks, assaulted and transferred to an adult jail for three weeks as punishment for escaping.
Mr Zamolo told the Children's Commissioner that a female guard once kicked a 13-year-old detainee in the guts and called her a "f***ing slut", while another worker called a boy a "stupid black c***" for taking too long for a toilet break.
Mr Zamolo was on duty when six boys were tear gassed in August 2014 after one escaped from solitary confinement and began trashing an exercise yard with a fire extinguisher.
He denied he was involved in the gassing decision and admitted a report filed with police claiming that five escaped detainees had assaulted guards with shards of glass, bricks and steel poles was inaccurate.
Mr Zamolo said he also witnessed fellow ex-guard Ben Kelleher angrily attempting to cover a camera and swearing at former inmate Dylan Voller while standing over the cowering boy on his bed.
"I was there if it got out of control," Mr Zamolo said.
"If Ben attacked Voller, we had to get Ben off Voller... that's why I asked another guard to assist."
