Justice for murdered teen Cassius as men found guilty
Aaron Bunch |
Justice has been served for the murder of an Indigenous teenager who was chased into bushland and beaten to death with a metal pole.
Cassius Turvey, a Noongar Yamatji boy, died in hospital 10 days after he was “deliberately struck to the head” in Perth’s eastern suburbs on October 13, 2022, causing nationwide outrage.
In front of a packed courtroom on Thursday, Jack Steven James Brearley, 24, and Brodie Lee Palmer, 29, were convicted of murdering the 15-year-old after three days of deliberations.
Mitchell Colin Forth, 27, who was also on trial in the West Australian Supreme Court for Cassius’ murder, was convicted of manslaughter.
Aleesha Louise Gilmore, 23, was acquitted by the jury of eight men and four women following a three-month trial that heard from 91 witnesses.
Outside court, Cassius’ mother Mechelle Turvey said her son identified Brearley and another person the night he was attacked.
“My son died for absolutely nothing,” she said, with some family and supporters chanting “justice for Cassius”.
“His life was taken. He was hunted down for days … 15 years of age, my son has finally got justice. May he live forever.”
Ms Turvey said it was a “sore point” for her police did not take a statement from Cassius before he died because of his head injury.
Asked about the verdicts, Ms Turvey said she was “numb with relief” after it was read.
“Justice to me will never be served because I don’t have my son and he’s not coming back … they can just rot as far as I’m concerned,” she said.
“I’m happy with everything else, three months of hell during this trial, listening to all the amount of lies that have been put forward.”
Ms Turvey thanked her family, supporters, investigators and the 91 witnesses who gave evidence during the three-month trial.
“Most of them were young children that are scarred for life, that helped my son on the day,” she said.
“Not like Brodie Palmer saying that he helped my son. He did f*** all.”
Prosecutor Ben Stanwix told the jury Brearley delivered the fatal blows while “hunting for kids” because somebody had smashed his car windows.
It was alleged Forth and Palmer aided him and, along with Gilmore, they had a common purpose on the day.
Brearley denied he struck Cassius with a pole, saying he only punched him after the teen knifed him and that Palmer did the deed, which he in turn denied as the two men attempted to blame each other for the murder during the trial.
Before the fatal attack, Brearley and his co-accused armed themselves with metal poles pulled from shopping trolleys before driving off to search for youths.
About the same time, Cassius and a group of about 20 fellow students caught a bus to the same area to watch a fight being talked about on social media.
Brearley, Forth and Palmer intercepted them near the field and in a series of incidents, Brearley was allegedly slashed with a knife and another boy was struck in the face with a metal pole.
Cassius and some other “terrified school kids” fled into nearby bushland.
“Cassius didn’t make it as far as the fence when the accused Brearley caught up with him,” Mr Stanwix said.
“He was caught, knocked to the ground and deliberately struck to the head with a metal pole.”
Cassius was struck at least twice, causing bleeding in his brain.
Ethan Robert MacKenzie, 20, also faced trial accused of “snatching two kids off the street”, and unlawfully detained them, punching, kicking and stabbing one of them.
The five defendants variously faced 21 charges over the events of October 9 and 13.
The jury found them guilty of all except Gilmore’s murder charge, and a stealing charge faced by Brearley.
The five offenders will be sentenced on June 26.
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AAP
