Children 'held like caged animals' in Queensland police watch houses for adults

Children in Queensland are reportedly being held "like caged animals" in police watch houses that are meant to be for adult offenders, the state's public guardian has said.

ABC's Four Corners show features hundreds of documents detailing cases of children being held in those facilities for lengthy periods of time, in adult holding cells.

This is reportedly happening because youth detention centres in Queensland are full.

Children are enduring lengthy periods in adult holding. Photo / ABC

"We have significant numbers of kids, from traumatised backgrounds, held like caged animals in concrete pens," Public Guardian Natalie Siegel-Brown told the ABC programme.

Siegel-Brown singled out a case where a girl was accidentally put in a cell with two alleged male sex offenders.

Files obtained by Four Corners detail how kids as young as 10 have been held, sometimes in isolation.

More than 70 cases reportedly saw children held for 10 or more days in these adult watch houses. Two children were held for 33 days or more.

In a particular case, a girl was held for 25 days. During that time, she found out she was 11 weeks pregnant and was then transferred to a youth detention centre.