A Perth jury has heard for the first time from a man accused of murdering Indigenous schoolboy Cassius Turvey as footage of his arrest and police interview were played in court.
Jack Brearley, now 23, is at the centre of the state’s case in the murder trial over the 15-year-old’s death in October 2022. Cassius died 10 days after he was allegedly bashed with the metal handle of a shopping trolley in a creek in the north-east suburb of Middle Swan.
Cassius Turvey died after he was bahed in Middle Swan in October 2022.
Brearley’s three co-accused – Aleesha Gilmore, 23, Brodie Palmer, 29 and Mitchell Forth, 26 – were also charged with murder because, in the prosecution’s view, they were aware of his intent to inflict significant violence on others while angry about the windows on his car being smashed the day before.
But prosecutors allege Brearley delivered the fatal blows to the schoolboy’s head after Cassius and a group of friends got off a bus close to Brearley’s home on the day of the incident, before becoming embroiled in an altercation with the accused group.
On Wednesday, the jury was shown body-worn camera footage of Brearley as he was arrested at his Middle Swan home the day after Cassius was hospitalised with a severe head injury.
In the footage he can be heard saying, “I’ve been stabbed three times” as police read him his rights.
“There’s my leg there, stab wounds,” he said.
“I admit I stamped on his head, but there was no pole involved. He stabbed me first.”
Brearley also then asks officers if he can “go down and put charges on him” – meaning Cassius – in relation to him being stabbed.
Brearley is later heard telling the detectives that the large group “were all coming off the bus coming for me” before claiming he told the group, “you’re messing with adults here, you’re still at school”.
Brearley can then be heard telling police, “I’m the one injured”, before claiming his then-girlfriend and co-accused Gilmore had also been injured during the incident.
It’s the state’s case that Gilmore had injured her own wrist in a separate incident unrelated to Cassius’ death.
In an interview at Midland Police Station, also shown to the jury on Wednesday, Brearley claims he was on his way to Clark Rubber when he received a call claiming a group of youths were coming to “run through” the home he shared with Gilmore, so he drove back to protect it.
“They were going to run through my house if I didn’t get there first,” he said.
He then said about 20 people, half of whom were schoolchildren, got off a bus near his house.
“Soon as they got off the bus we drove past them, and they’re going, ‘What? What? Come on,’ they said they’re coming to my house. I said, ‘You’re not coming to my house, that’s the last thing you’re going to do’.”
Brearley said the group were “mouthing off” with weapons.
“I’ve got the footage of them saying that, that they’re going to run through my house, break bones in my body, bash my missus, take my shit,” Brearley told police.
Brearley then said he “chased the fat one”, who “just f---ing stopped”.
“His mate yells, ‘Chuck me the knife’, and his mate did, and I said, ‘Are you gonna use the knife?’, and he said, ‘Yeah’.”
Brearley detailed how Cassius slipped in the creek before he demanded the boy told him who gave him the knife while putting his foot on his head.
“I was just resting my foot on him so he couldn’t move,” he said.
“I said tell me your name, or you’ll get stomped. But it wasn’t enough to hurt him, just to keep him down, but then he gave me the name. If he didn’t give me the name I probably would have killed the kid, you know.”
Brearley then claimed Cassius slashed him with the knife on his leg, causing him to punch the boy, before he walked away and went home.
The trial continues.