Witness Tyler Gilmore tells court the accused ‘were getting weapons’ on day Perth schoolboy Cassius Turvey was allegedly murdered
The brother of a woman accused of murdering Perth schoolboy Cassius Turvey has told a court the group were acting rowdy and gathering weapons on the day the 15-year old was fatally struck.
WA News
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The brother of a woman accused of being part of the group that allegedly murdered Perth schoolboy Cassius Turvey has told a court the accused were acting “rowdy,” appeared “drunk” and “were getting weapons” on the afternoon the boy was beaten.
The state alleges Cassius, 15, was murdered by a group of 20 somethings armed with knuckledusters and steel poles over “petty grievances” that were sparked by a teenage love triangle that had nothing to do with him.
Jack Brearley, 23, Aleesha Gilmore, 23, Mitchell Forth, 26, and Brodie Palmer, 29, are on trial in the WA Supreme Court charged with Cassius’ murder after he was beaten on October 13, 2022 and died in hospital 10 days later.
A fifth man Ethan McKenzie, 20, has not been charged with murder, but has been charged with deprivation of liberty and assault for his alleged involvement in snatching two boys off the street days before the boy was fatally beaten.
Mr Brearley, Mr Forth and Ms Gilmore are also facing additional charges over the same incidents that occurred on October 9, 2022.
Ms Gilmore’s brother, Tyler Gilmore, was 18 years old at the time his sister, her boyfriend Mr Brearley, Mr Palmer, Mr Forth and Mr McKenzie are accused of “hunting down” school kids through suburbs in Perth’s east.
Mr Gilmore said on the day Cassius was attacked he was at home with his younger brother and they had both received threatening messages and phone calls from other boys.
Mr Gilmore said the messages were, “Stuff about people coming to the house”.
“They tried involving me, and messaged me they were going to f*** me, on Messenger,” he said.
“They tried arranging a fight or something and wanted me to come to the train station and stuff.
“I was messaging them back that I wouldn’t go and fight them, they kept saying they wanted to fight.”
Mr Gilmore phoned his sister and told her, and she returned to the house in a “big black car” with Mr Palmer, Mr Forth and Mr Brearley.
He told the court the group appeared “a bit drunk,” “rowdy”, were saying they were “going to smash them” and “were getting weapons and stuff”.
“Brodie was making trolley poles in the alleyway, I seen a couple of poles in his hands,” he said.
“I am pretty sure he had knuckledusters in his car, I saw them in his hands before that.”
Mr Gilmore said one of his brother’s mates rang him and said there were people on a bus coming to the house before the accused left to go for a drive to see if they could see anyone coming towards the house.
Under cross-examination, Mr Brearley’s lawyer Simon Watters put to Mr Gilmore that he was no longer friends with Mr because he had caused his sister a world of pain on a murder charge.
“Yep,” Mr Gilmore agreed.
“When you tell us you saw Brodie breaking shopping trolleys is that because that’s what you saw or were you trying to help Jack?” Mr Watters asked.
“That’s what I saw,” he told the court.
“(Mr Palmer) was hitting them with something and breaking them.
“After I seen him holding the handles in the house, in the lounge room (he was holding) about two or something.
“There was one on the couch and he was holding one.”
The lawyer asked Mr Gilmore if he saw Mr Palmer wearing knuckledusters, and he replied, “Yeah he was wearing them on his hand.”
Mr Palmer’s lawyer Christian Porter accused Mr Gilmore of lying to protect his sister and her former boyfriend in a police statement he gave on November 2, 2022, which said he had no idea why they accused went out the day Cassius died.
“Is that a lie?” Mr Porter asked the witness.
“It’s a lie,” Mr Gilmore said.
“Obviously you lied to protect Aleesha and Jack,” Mr Porter put to him.
“Yes,” he replied.
Mr Porter put to the witness he told the court he only saw Mr Palmer in the alleyway breaking trolley poles, but in a recent statement he said he wasn’t sure if it was just Mr Palmer or if Mr Brearley was there as well.
“I wasn’t really sure,” he said.
The trial continues.
Originally published as Witness Tyler Gilmore tells court the accused ‘were getting weapons’ on day Perth schoolboy Cassius Turvey was allegedly murdered
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