The worker was not stood down while the matter was looked into. He was moved into a different role in the centre and the Department of Communities planned to handle the matter internally rather than report it to police.

Ashley clinical practice consultant Alysha had been made aware of a historic sexual abuse allegation while speaking with another worker, and reported the matter in early 2020.

It was raised at the department's "strengthening safeguards working group", but the worker - given the pseudonym 'Lester' - remained in the workplace.

A member of that group - current custodial youth justice director Pamela Honan - was questioned about the process that was followed in responding to the allegation.

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She said it was her belief it would be handled by the department's people and culture unit, and it was raised several times with the working group.

"I raised on multiple occasions my concerns about the fact these concerns had been provided and he was still in the workplace," Ms Honan said.

"They (people and culture) were still making inquiries, trying to gather information to determine if there was anything to corroborate or any records that could be located that could be aligned with the information that had been provided by Alysha.

"I would like to have seen him stood down while those inquiries took place."

Alysha has given evidence to the commission claiming she repeatedly raised her concerns about Lester still being in the workplace and having access to children, including a claim he was able to carry out a strip search.

Ms Honan said full strip searching had stopped as a practice in 2019, but other forms of personal searches still occurred.

"There was one incident where Lester had been involved in a search of a young person that was witnessed by another person," she said.

"I was concerned, yes.

"It wasn't normal for Lester to have a strip search function."

Alysha also claims she was told not to report the matter to police. Ms Honan said this was the case.

"The initial conversation that she had with my executive officer in the early days, she wanted to report to police. She was discouraged from doing that until there was an opportunity to discuss it and to understand what had occurred, and then determine where to from there," Ms Honan said.

"We need to clarify exactly the information that she had. She was very escalated, which is understandable with that kind of information.

READ MORE: Former Ashley Youth Detention Centre detainees detail shocking sexual and physical abuse allegations

"And was wanting to go to a range of different places with it, and my executive officer said to her she needed to calm down, I would speak to her about that, and we would refer it to the right place."

Commissioner Robert Benjamin AM commented that the children at the centre were "left terribly exposed" as a result of the failure to remove Lester from the environment. Ms Honan conceded there was a risk.

Lester was stood down for just a few months, the commission heard. It was unclear when the department notified police of the allegation.

Alysha will give evidence next week.

Community and Legal Aid lawyers say it is not uncommon for former Ashley detainees to make disclosures of sexual and physical abuse they suffered at the centre.

A common theme was that they were usually too afraid to make the allegation while in the centre for fear of repercussions.

Lawyer Hannah Phillips - who regularly works with at-risk young people - said one example involved a man who had been sexually abused during a strip search at Ashley, and who now relives the trauma every time he is searched in Risdon.

She said it was not unexpected that such claims would occur later on.

"The barriers would be that there is a fear of repercussion and that could be from a number of people," Ms Phillips said.

"If they're at Ashley, they're not going to say what's happening to them while they're there and they're stuck there. There's also really an inability to be able to disclose anything confidentially or privately really unless you're in an appointment with a lawyer."

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Some had made applications through the national redress scheme.

Tasmania Legal Aid director Vincenzo Caltabiano said such disclosures occurred "often".

"There's the lack of a safe reporting system which is another contributor to the failure for people to report in that time," he said.

A Tasmanian mother believes her son was "saveable" when he went into Ashley Youth Detention Centre aged 17 with mental health conditions, but his experiences there ruined his future.

Central to this was the use of regular full strip searches, and the "bastardisation" that the mother alleges had occurred.

'Eve' was one of two mothers of former Ashley detainees to give evidence at the Commission of Inquiry on Friday, detailing the ways in which the state's youth justice and other systems had failed their children.

READ MORE: Ashley Youth Detention Centre staff say they are overrun, overworked and unsafe, but lacking support

She said her concerns with Ashley were almost immediate, when her attempts to provide medication for staff to give to her son were refused as he did not have a firm diagnosis.

In the coming weeks, Eve claimed her son's mental health deteriorated in a new environment, while he also went through criminal proceedings in court.

"I found it very difficult to communicate with the staff because they didn't want to communicate with you. They just wanted to run everything in house," she said.

He eventually phased out contact with his mother, which she believed was a result of him being punished for complaining to her about aspects of his care. She said he would also be strip searched when visits occurred, but it was not until after he had left Ashley that she was made aware of what was occurring.

"I did feel awful knowing that that did happen every time I visited him. It wasn't until later on that I found out there was a lot of bastardisation going on during these searches," Eve said.

"I thought it was just the general shyness of being cavity searched. That in itself is daunting for most people.

"It was awful."

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