One says he left soon after Mr Crawford resigned because he felt he no longer had any "protection" at the centre.
Logan Upston (16) provided a written statement about an alleged incident where he claims he had an ice-cream punched out of his hand by a tutor and was then pushed to the ground and forced to clean it up.
"Do you think it's right that a tutor can throw a Coke bottle at someone's head, shove an ice-cream in his face with such force that he hits the wall?" he wrote.
In an interview, he said the assault surprised and shocked him.
He also recalled another incident which started as a joke and ended with his life being threatened.
The teenager placed a small amount of icing sugar on the same tutor's head but the man did not see it as funny and allegedly told Mr Upston he would kill him if he did it again.
"At its worst, the training centre was not a place I wanted to be but I had no choice. It got to the point that when Brian [Mr Crawford] left, I felt I had to go too because I was scared I would get beaten up."
Former trainee Nathan Nelson, who spent five years at the centre, studying forestry and then carpentry, claims to have witnessed several assaults by one tutor against at least two different trainees.
He also confirmed the same tutor supplied alcohol to minors at an overnight camp.
Mr Nelson (29), who is now a sickness beneficiary in Dunedin, said the atmosphere at the centre was "utterly crap".
He laid the blame at management and the tutor who claimed his fists were classed as "lethal weapons".
Another trainee, who did not want his name published, said he witnessed one trainee being assaulted by a tutor and overheard the same person threaten another trainee in a separate incident.
