Deadline: Three years on, ’racist’ killing turns out to be something very different

Even the Prime Minister felt the need to ignore the absence of facts and join media and human rights groups in branding the killing of Indigenous Perth teenager Cassius Turvey as racist. Years on, a different narrative has emerged.

Mark Buttler and Andrew Rule with the latest crime buzz.

I see racists

Some people who profess to deplore racism seem to be the most desperate to find it.

It doesn’t even have to be real, as seems to be the case with the killing of Indigenous Perth teenager Cassius Turvey in 2022.

Within hours of the youngster’s death, there were instant pronouncements from sections of the media and human rights groups condemning the killing as “racist.” All this without evidence, let alone proof.

Even the Prime Minister felt the need to ignore the absence of facts and jump on the bandwagon.

“This attack, that is clearly racially motivated, just breaks your heart,” Anthony Albanese said, managing in a mere 11 words to prove that his logic matches his grammar.

“We are a better country than that and my heart goes out to the family and the friends.”

Fast forward to last week. By then, it seems, a different story had emerged.

Defence and prosecution tend not to agree with each other about many things but both sides in this trial were in furious agreement that there was no racial motivation at all behind the confrontation that led to Cassius’s death.

Cassius Turvey was assaulted while coming home from school and died 10 days later.

While poseurs on the east coast were busy getting it wrong by constructing some fantasy a Deep South “Mississippi Burning” lynch gang, the dead boy’s mother, Mechelle Turvey, was actually doing good works to make a difference.

For her work as an advocate for victims of crime, Mechelle became 2024 Western Australian of the year.

An example of some of the inaccurate media coverage.

The facts are awful enough for the Turvey family without any needless spin, speculation and rumour. The simple fact is that Cassius Turvey was assaulted while coming home from school and died 10 days later.

His death sparked a national day of action across Australia, with rallies and vigils to express grief, anger, hurt and solidarity with his loved ones.

Mechelle, still grieving the recent death of her husband Sam, led the march in Perth. She gave a powerful speech about her son, calling for calm and nonviolence — and the need for proper care for victims of crime and their families.

In 2023, Mechelle began utilising her lived experiences by training Western Australia police recruits to deal with victims of crime with empathy and support.

And this is no flash in the pan. Through her life, Mechelle has volunteered to support her community, including helping people in prison. She has donated much of the money raised for Cassius to youth organisations.

Those behind the award suggest that her courage, care and compassion for others are exemplary. The same cannot be said for all the hand-wringing opportunists so quick to exploit someone else’s grief.

Mechelle Turvey mother of Cassius Turvey was named 2024 Western Australian of the year. Picture: Colin Murty

A dog, a horse and a voodoo doll

People in horse racing are a hard headed lot but they are also superstitious. Which is only natural in a business that relies on luck and involves danger physical, financial and moral.

All of which means the sudden death of a respected horse trainer’s mother recently is spooking a lot of people because it looks like proof of the old saying that bad luck comes in threes.

In this case it has come in the form of three separate deaths in a few months at the same stable.

First it was the death of a star racehorse, a Group winner with huge value and even more potential. It is said that the horse developed a fatal infection from what could have been a puncture wound in its foot. Horses are notoriously delicate creatures.

Next came the mysterious death of the stable dog. Not just any mutt but the much-loved pet of the trainer’s much-loved mother, who named it after her late husband. Dogs are not so delicate but are vulnerable to many forms of poison, including snakebite.

The respected and popular widow in question returned from an overdue holiday interstate to find her much-loved pet dead. Losing the dog was heartbreaking, which might explain what happened next.

The dog’s owner was found dead in bed, as if she had simply died in her sleep. Police are not suggesting any suspicious circumstances. But many people in the tight-knit racing community are distressed and angry because they suspect they know why she was badly rattled just before her death.

It happened when she opened a feed bin to do her early morning chore of feeding the horses and found something that shocked her.

It was a small doll, described by some people as a “voodoo doll”, with at least a dozen coloured pins stuck deep into its head.

The doll might be totally insignificant and random but it has led to consternation, rumour and innuendo among the many who believe they know who put it there.

If there are any more mystery deaths in that corner of the racing scene, the authorities will be interested in exactly who was where and when.

Josh Hill in his days with West Coast. Picture: Sarah Reed

Whistle blows on dirty play

The charging of a former AFL player with alleged under-age sex offences this week brings back memories of when a North Melbourne star was dubbed “The Penetrator” — a satirical reference to Carlton’s star finals player Wayne Johnston’s nickname “The Dominator” (who had nothing to do with this of course other than having his nickname co-opted)

Now it’s a case of “The Investigator”, as in a police officer, sorting out fact from fiction before the ex-Western Bulldogs player formerly known as Josh Hill faces court. That’s if he faces court.

Hill has changed his surname to Carter for reasons that some might try to guess.

Hill-alias-Carter was already well known in playing and sports media circles as a quiet man with a vexing social dilemma which involved two young women being pregnant simultaneously.

Still, anyone who thinks the game is suddenly falling into disrepute should recall that such scandals are not new.

Apart from everything else, the latest round of charges follow the dismissal of historical sex counts against 1970s star “Big Carl” Ditterich. Then there were the historical charges levelled at his contemporary, North Melbourne champion Barry Cable.

There was a lot of dirty play in those days, only some of it on the ground.

Love the passion

There was much reaction to the departure of top cop Shane Patton, including a lot of talk about the crime rate and its bearing on what happened to the man carrying the can.

The Herald Sun comments section was as fertile as usual, throwing up some radical solutions to the crime outbreak.

This letter from Tony L is an example:

“I was living and working in Kenya 2001/2006. Car jacking was a growing problem. Then the chief of Kenya Police, General Ali, told his officers to shoot to kill when encountering car jackers. That sure separated the truly committed from the amateurs.”

Call us soft, Tony, but a state that can’t get its house in order on bail laws may not yet be ready for death squads.

But thanks for the interesting history lesson.