As it happened: WA news on Friday, June 27

Good afternoon readers, and thanks for following along on what turned out to be a major news day.

The live blog will be back on Monday with another live coverage of the latest news. Until then, stay safe and have fun.

Fremantle trade target Sean Darcy will play less as the Dockers attempt to protect his body and give Luke Jackson more chances to flourish.

And Dockers veteran Michael Walters has been forced to the sidelines again after his troublesome knee flared up after last Saturday’s WAFL hit-out.

Darcy competes in a ruck contest with Darcy Cameron of the Magpies.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

Darcy is contracted to Fremantle until the end of 2030, but Essendon are rumoured to be in the hunt for his services if they lose Sam Draper to Adelaide or the Brisbane Lions.

Fremantle’s heavy investment in Jackson and Darcy as a two-man ruck combo has come under heavy criticism, especially in the wake of Darcy’s injury struggles.

The 27-year-old has played just seven of the Dockers’ 14 games this season, on the back of being restricted to 12 appearances in 2024 and 15 the year prior.

Jackson has thrived in the games Darcy has been absent, leading to calls for Fremantle to cut the dual ruck experiment short.

Dockers coach Justin Longmuir doesn’t agree, and he’ll unleash both Darcy and Jackson together in Sunday’s clash with St Kilda at Optus Stadium.

Goalsneak Isaiah Dudley also returns.

“He (Darcy) was out of the team last week because it was a five-day break against Essendon, so he’ll come back in,” Longmuir said on Friday.

“And we’ll assume the same sort of set-up we did against Gold Coast and North Melbourne, which we thought gave us good success.”

The set-up against the Kangaroos and Suns resulted in Jackson taking on the lead ruck role, as well as playing as a big-bodied midfielder or forward at times.

Darcy was a best and fairest winner in 2021 as one of the competition’s premier ruckmen, but knee and soft tissue injuries have halted his progress.

Longmuir wants to keep playing Darcy, but the 203cm ruckman will have to be content with a diminished role.

AAP

Mechelle Turvey has spoken outside Perth’s District Court, moments after her son’s killers were handed life sentences.

Turvey said she was happy with the outcome after Jack Brearley and Brodie Palmer received life sentences for killing Cassius in October 2023, and their accomplice, Mitchell Forth, was slapped with a minimum of 12 years’ jail.

Mechelle Turvey outside court. Credit: Rebecca Peppiatt

But Turvey was disappointed Brearley’s ex-girlfriend, Aleesha Gilmore, walked away with a conditional suspended sentence, found not guilty of murder and not guilty of manslaughter, but guilty of other related matters, including the assault and kidnapping of two other teenage boys in the days prior.

The two men guilty of the murder of Indigenous schoolboy Cassius Turvey have now been handed life sentences.

Jack Brearley has been found guilty of murder.Credit: Facebook

Jack Brearley, whom Chief Justice Peter Quinlan determined was the person who delivered the fatal blows to the boy’s head, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 22 years.

A fifth person caught up in the trial, 20-year-old Ethan Mackenzie, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for his involvement in the assault and kidnapping of two teenage boys in the days leading up to the attack on Cassius.

The sentencing is now concluded and a recording of Judge Quinlan’s sentencing will be uploaded to the Supreme Court website later today, as well as being distributed to the media.

Cassius’ mother, Mechelle Turvey, will be speaking outside of Perth District Court shortly to give her reaction to the sentences that have been handed down today.

We will provide you with a detailed write-up of today’s outcome later this afternoon.

Both Mitchell Forth and Brodie Palmer have learned their fates – the former for manslaughter and the latter for the murder of 15-year-old Cassius Turvey.

Forth was sentenced to 12 years behind bars – 10 for the manslaughter charge and a further two years for other offending.

Chief Justice Peter Quinlan said he was “in the background, not a main offender” but instead a follower.

Forth had eight character references which acknowledged Cassius’ family and their suffering.

Quinlan also said that, unlike Jack Brearley, who is still to be sentenced, Forth named Cassius in his own letter to the court and showed remorse, even though it was after a not guilty plea.

Following Forth’s sentencing, Palmer was handed life in prison, with a minimum non-parole period of 18 years.

Unlike Forth, Quinlan said Palmer’s character references held no weight, with his family convinced he had done nothing wrong.

“You did tell Mr Brearley to stop and you moved him away. You did this shortly after arriving at scene,” Quinlan said.

But he found that while Palmer was not the person to use the handle of a shopping trolley to bash the boy in the head, he was responsible for his death due to his “participation in the unlawful purpose” he shared with Brearley.

Brearley is being sentenced now.

Taking a short break from the sentencing of those responsible for the death of Cassius Turvey, and the state’s Corruption and Crime Commission has found a Geraldton police officer lied and wrongly charged a driver with unlawful damage after a brief car chase in the Mid West town.

It also found those lies were backed up by the senior constable’s partner in witness statements and follow-up interviews to support the driver’s prosecution.

Two officers lied about an incident involving a car chase near Geraldton.Credit: WAtoday

In a report tabled in parliament on Friday, the commission alleged Senior Constable Brent Wyndham breached WA Police driving policy by twice making contact with a car during the chase, including while executing a “precision intercept technique” manoeuvre, which under the policy was only permitted in exceptional circumstances.

However, after arresting the driver, Wyndham then charged him with unlawful damage, claiming the police car was rammed first, which the commission found was a lie and which was repeated in official witness statements from the senior constable and another officer in the car, Constable Alex Miatke.

The commission formed an opinion of serious misconduct by Wyndham, and an opinion of police misconduct by Miatke, and recommended WA Police consider prosecuting Wyndham, who has since resigned from the force.

Read the full story here.

Aleesha Gilmore, a 23-year-old woman who was charged with murdering Cassius Turvey alongside her then boyfriend and their friend, will walk free today, albeit under a suspended prison sentence.

Aleesha Gilmore was found innocent of murder.Credit: 9 News Perth

Gilmore was found not guilty of murder and not guilty of manslaughter in relation to the 15-year-old’s death but was found guilty of other related matters, including the assault and kidnapping of two other teenage boys in the days prior.

Just now, Chief Justice Peter Quinlan handed down a sentence of one year and three months which he ordered would start today but be served in the community under supervision.

While sentencing her, Quinlan said Gilmore had a “conflicted personality, at times lashing out like a spoilt child, other times acting with maturity” and said she was “capable of warmth and tenderness”.

The court heard Gilmore took on a mother’s role for her younger brothers after her own mum descended into drug addiction when she was just eight years old.

Gilmore also became addicted to methamphetamine and Cannabis, but Quinlan said she had the opportunity to lead a productive life with “the right support”.

She was sentenced to time behind bars, suspended for 24 months.

Her co-accused are hearing their fates now.

Chief Justice Quinlan has scuttled a key part of murderer Jack Brearley’s defence, rejecting claims that Cassius Turvey had cut him with a knife.

As sentencing of Brearley, Brodie Palmer and Mitchell Forth over Cassius’ death continues in the WA Supreme Court, Quinlan said the 15-year-old “was completely and utterly innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever”, who was only killed because “he was the person [Brearley] happened to catch”.

The judge also put paid to claims made by Brearley’s defence during the trial alleging Cassius pulled out a knife and cut him during the fracas.

“I completely reject the suggestion that he was ever in possession of a knife and did not cut your leg,” Quinlan said.

“That was an outrageous slur by you on your victim, Mr Brearley.”

Chief Justice Peter Quinlan has just told the Supreme Court of WA that he is satisfied that, based on three months of evidence heard earlier this year, that 24-year-old Jack Brearley delivered the fatal blows to Cassius Turvey.

Quinlan is still delivering his sentencing to the three people convicted of the murder and manslaughter of the schoolboy, who died in October 2022 of head wounds sustained during an assault in Middle Swan.

During the trial, Brearley and his co-accused Brodie Palmer each pointed the finger at each other when it came to who had been responsible for using the metal handle of a shopping trolley to bash the boy after he was chased across a reserve with a group of other children.

But the jury found them both guilty of his murder, and Quinlan has just told Brearley it was he who carried out the actual assault during a fit of “sheer rage and uncontrollable violence”.

Quinlan told Palmer that, while he was not the person who killed Cassius Turvey, he “shared a common purpose” to incite violence and was therefore equally culpable.

He added the assaults were committed “as part of vigilante activity … against innocent children”.

“None of your victims had done anything whatsoever to any of you,” he said.

“It would be bad enough for you to commit these offences if your victims had actually done anything but in this case none of them had.

“Your vigilante justice was completely misdirected.”

The sentencing continues.

Chief Justice Peter Quinlan is part-way through his lengthy sentencing of five people involved in the murder of Indigenous teenager Cassius Turvey and matters leading up to it on October 13, 2022.

He opened his remarks by comparing Cassius to “the great Cassius Clay”, otherwise known as boxer Muhammed Ali.

Quinlan said the 15-year-old “showed great promise” before adding that he was “robbed” of his life.

“Unlike his namesake, Cassius Turvey will never get to fulfil the great promise he showed in his life ... all because you killed him,” he told one of Cassius’ killers, Jack Brearley.

“You cut short his life in an act of brutality.”

Justice Quinlan has made it clear so far in his remarks that it was Brearley who delivered the fatal blows to Cassius, leading to his death 10 days later.

He has also told the 24-year-old that he was a terrible liar and someone who thought of himself as “something of a tough guy who liked to lord it over other people, particularly people you thought were weaker than you.”

He also told the killer that his lies were “often comical”.

The sentencing continues.