Documents leaked to the Guardian show the company gave incomplete details of abuse to senators

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Wilson Security bosses may be hauled back before the Senate to answer questions over inconsistencies between their evidence to a committee hearing over abuses in detention on Nauru, and revelations by the Guardian in the Nauru files.

The files – 2,000 pages of leaked incident reports from within the Nauru regime – have revealed that Wilson Security failed to report up to 16 allegations of child abuse in the Nauru detention centre to the senate.

A senate inquiry into conditions and allegations of abuse at Nauru detention centre last year asked Wilson Security for details of all known incidents or allegations of sexual assault, child abuse and assaults on minors.



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Wilson Security, which provides the guards for the detention centre as well as other security services, provided a table of reports of sexual abuse and child abuse.



But the Nauru files show the Wilson report to the senate was incomplete and that at least 16 serious cases of child abuse and sexual assault were not disclosed, including allegations a guard sexually assaulting a young boy, a child being choked by a guard, and a guard shining a torch on the genitals of a girl he had forced to go to the toilet on the ground.

In one instance, incident reports show that Wilson Security knew the name, position, and station of a Wilson Security guard who allegedly hit a five-year-old girl “so hard it lifted her off her feet”, but then told the senate it did not have sufficient information to identify the alleged offender.



Wilson Security has maintained that all of its evidence to the senate was full and correct. The company had “fully cooperated with and, based on the information to hand, provided honest and accurate evidence” to the inquiry, a spokeswoman said in a statement to the Guardian.

Sarah Hanson-Young, the Greens senator who had asked Wilson Security executives for the sexual and child abuse details, said she would move to have the company’s executives recalled before the senate to answer questions about their earlier evidence.

“Wilson Security and Broadspectrum have many questions to answer, not the least why they have played down the level of systematic abuse and harm happening on their watch.

“These government contractors, which have been paid billion of dollars by the Australian government are either grossly incompetent or lying criminals. They must now explain to the Senate which one it is.”

Misleading the parliament is a serious criminal offence. Contempt of the senate carries a possible prison term, though this has never been imposed in Australia.

Hanson-Young said once the new parliament was resumed at the end of this month, she would move to re-establish the previous senate committee investigating Australia’s offshore detention regime.



“As members of parliament we each have responsibly to ensure that the government is kept to account and when we know children are being abused there is no excuse for turning a blind eye.”

Wilson Security has maintained its evidence to the senate inquiry was comprehensive and accurate. In a statement, a spokeswoman said the company maintains a rigorous and robust reporting system for all incidents and allegations.



“Wilson Security takes the welfare and safety of the asylum seekers at the regional processing centres seriously.



“All allegations of inappropriate behaviour on Nauru by asylum seekers or staff are reported through a comprehensive information and incident reporting system, referred to the relevant stakeholders for action, and where appropriate referred to the relevant authorities.”