Cassius found ‘lying covered in blood’, murder trial told

A man accused of murdering an Indigenous teenager allegedly stomped on the boy and witnessed his co-accused attack him with a metal pole, a court has been told.

Cassius Turvey, a 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy, died in hospital 10 days after prosecutors say he was chased into bushland, knocked to the ground and “deliberately struck to the head” in Perth’s eastern suburbs on October 13, 2022.

Aleesha Louise Gilmore, 23, her then-boyfriend Jack Steven James Brearley, 24, and his mates, Brodie Lee Palmer, 29, and Mitchell Colin Forth, 26, are on trial in the West Australian Supreme Court for Cassius’ murder.

Prosecutors previously said Brearley delivered the fatal blows while he was “hunting for kids” because somebody had smashed his car windows and alleged Forth, Palmer and Gilmore helped him and knew his intent before the incident.

But on Thursday, prosecutor Tracy Tan challenged Palmer’s evidence he wasn’t at the scene when Cassius was struck and that he offered to help the teen after he was injured.

“You were holding a pole at the time you ran into the bush?” Ms Tan said.

Palmer replied: “No, that’s incorrect.”

Ms Tan: “You saw Jack with a pole too, hitting Cassius?”

Palmer denied this.