Man accused of murdering Cassius Turvey says schoolboy stabbed him first

The man accused of murdering Indigenous Perth schoolboy Cassius Turvey claims he was stabbed first and lashed out in retaliation, but not with a metal pole.

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’ death sparked a national outrcy.

During the first day of the trial on Monday, prosecutor Ben Stanwix told the jury it was Brearley who delivered the fatal blows to Cassius’ head on October 13, 2022.

Stanwix said 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 on Tuesday Brearley’s legal team, led by barrister Simon Watters, told the jury the state had the wrong man, and alleged it was Brearley’s co-accused Palmer who bashed Cassius with the trolley handle, leaving him with bleeding on his brain that led to his death.

“For two long years, Jack Brearley has waited for a jury to listen to his account of what happened on the afternoon of October 13, 2022,” Watters said.

“You will hear on behalf of Jack Brearley that over the course of those days, he, like a lot of members of our community, had concerns for the welfare of others, concerns for his property, and concerns for his home.”

Watters told the jury Brearley chased a group of schoolchildren who got off a bus in Middle Swan and who he believed were there to fight his girlfriend’s younger brother and run through his house.

The court heard that Brearley’s account of events was that he chased the group of 19 before catching up to what he called “the fat one”, meaning Cassius.

Watters said that when Brearley caught up to the teen, the pair tripped over a loose fence wire, with Cassius landing on his back and Brearley on top of him.

Brearley claimed Cassius had a small steak knife in his hand, prompting Brearley to try and get away.

“Cassius had a fistful of his shorts, and then he slashed his leg,” Watters told the jury.

“[Brearley] then yelled out something like, ‘Help, I’ve been stabbed’.”

Brearley then claims to have punched Cassius in the face in retaliation as he tried to get away.

The court then heard the claim that Brearley’s former friend, Brodie Palmer, appeared from “seven or eight paces away” with the handle of a shopping trolley and proceeded to bash Cassius “two or three times”.

Watters also told the jury that Brearley yelled at Palmer to stop during the assault.

Referring to a telephone call with Gilmore’s mother – in which she claims Brearley bragged to her while laughing about “smacking” Cassius with the trolley pole, and that “he learnt his lesson” – Watters told the jury it was in fact Palmer making those claims while standing next to him at the time of the call.

But Palmer’s lawyer Christian Porter addressed the jury later on Tuesday, firing back with accusations that Brearley was lying.

Porter said Brearley carried out “violent, rageful actions”, was a “thug, a bully and a coward”, and claimed he was “pointing the finger at his former friend to save his skin”.

“What is clear across all indictments is that the actions of Jack Brearley and conduct of Jack Brearley show a consistent combination of extreme violence, white-hot rage, misplaced revenge, and cowardice,” he told the court.

“I want to put on behalf of Brodie Palmer that what was put by Mr Watters is plainly and clearly wrong.”

Porter told the jury there was a simple aspect to the story, in that witnesses claimed they saw a man in a white T-shirt delivering the blows to Cassius’ head, and his client was dressed in black on the day.

He also said Palmer was not driven to inflict harm on anyone in the same way Brearley was.

“Jack Brearley was so totally enraged at the events leading up to the 13th of October that he was motivated and intended to injure others,” Porter said.

“Brodie Palmer never shared that rage. He never shared that motivation. He was not involved in the preceding events … he had no substantial awareness of these events. He had no animosity towards the people involved.

“Brodie Palmer did not have any intention of doing anyone any bodily harm and certainly no intention of killing anyone.”

Gilmore’s lawyer Simon Freitag also told the jury his client was innocent of murder, because “she was simply not there when the fatal blows were struck”.

He added she was “somewhere about 500 metres to one kilometre away when [Cassius] was fatally injured.”

Freitag added that Gilmore did lie to police about other matters and said “some foolish things” – but was not guilty of murder.

On Monday, Stanwix told the jury the events that led to Cassius’ death began days earlier with rivalry between two teenage boys over a girl, calling it a “love triangle”.

He added on Tuesday that it was “not the state’s case that this was a racially motivated attack” and urged the jury not to rely on any previous reporting of Cassius’s death.

A fifth person, Ethan Mackenzie, 20, is also on trial, accused of detaining and wounding another 15-year-old boy in the days before Cassius was attacked. He is not accused of murdering Cassius.

The trial continues.

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