Cassius Turvey: Guilty verdicts at Indigenous teen's murder trial

Two men have been found guilty of murdering an Indigenous teenager who was chased into bushland and bashed with a metal pole.

Another man was convicted of manslaughter, and a woman was acquitted over the attack on Cassius Turvey in Perth’s eastern suburbs on October 13, 2022.

The 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy died in hospital 10 days later from complications related to severe internal head injuries, causing outrage across the nation.

In front of a packed courtroom on Thursday, Jack Steven James Brearley, 24, and Brodie Lee Palmer, 29, were convicted of murder by a jury 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.

Prosecutor Ben Stanwix told the jury at the start of the mammoth 12-week trial that 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.

The jury was told the attack on Cassius in bushland near a creek was “the end point of a complex series of events that had absolutely nothing to do with him”.

They started on October 9 when Forth, Brearley, Gilmore and another man, who was also on trial for lesser charges, Ethan Robert MacKenzie, 20, allegedly “snatched two kids off the street” and unlawfully detained them, punching, kicking and stabbing one of them.

The next incident happened three days later, on October 12, when a group of school-aged kids allegedly went to Gilmore’s home and “almost certainly in retribution” smashed the windows of Brearley’s car.

Mr Stanwix told the jury it was “tit-for-tat escalation” and Brearley and Forth had later used a car as a weapon and chased down two boys, hitting one of them.

The following day, Gilmore’s brothers warned that a group of teens could be coming to their family home, where Brearley also lived, looking for a fight.

Brearley and his co-accused allegedly 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, the impact splitting his ear in half and causing bleeding in his brain.

His death shocked the community and the attack was described by some, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, as racially motivated, although Mr Stanwix said this wasn’t the case in his opening remarks.

All told, 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.

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