The mother of murdered Perth schoolboy Cassius Turvey has laid bare the impact her son’s death had on her and the wider community, saying it was a racially motivated, “targeted” attack that has “irrevocably altered” her life.
Cassius, 15, was murdered in October 2022 by Jack Brearley, 24, and Brodie Palmer, 29, while he was walking home from school in the east Perth suburb of Middle Swan.
Mechelle Turvey read a victim impact statement to the court ahead of the sentencing of her son’s killers.Credit: Rebecca Peppiatt
He was bashed with the metal handle of a broken shopping trolley after being chased across a reserve by the men, who believed he was part of a group responsible for smashing the windows on Brearley’s car in the days prior.
A Supreme Court trial this year heard Cassius was just an innocent bystander on the day.
The men’s friend, Mitchell Forth, 26, was found guilty of manslaughter, while Brearley’s girlfriend, Aleesha Gilmore, 23, who was also charged with murder over Cassius’ death, was acquitted by a jury last month.
Jack Brearley has been found guilty of murder.Credit: Facebook
The men will be sentenced over the attack on Friday morning, but as Chief Justice Peter Quinlan began the sentencing exercise on Thursday morning, he gave Cassius’ mother Mechelle Turvey the opportunity to read out a victim impact statement to the court.
Turvey told the court her grief was “immeasurable” and said the crime had impacted the wider community.
“The community, once a place of safety and trust now lives under a shadow of fear and uncertainty,” she said.
“The actions of the accused have torn at the very fabric of society and will take years decades if not lifetimes to heal and recover.
“My son was a respected, bright, loving and compassionate individual whose life was tragically cut short by a vigilante set of adults who took the law into their own hands.”
Turvey said the group had “targeted any unknown Swan View Senior High School students” in “discriminatory targeting”.
“These young Aboriginal children were chased and attacked and were racially vilified,” she said.
“If anyone thinks their actions were not racially motivated, many Australians will be left scratching their heads.”
During the 12-week trial earlier this year, lawyers argued Cassius’ killers’ actions were not racially motivated, and that they were only acting out of self-defence after an online argument broke out between Gilmore’s younger brother and another boy, and violence was threatened towards them.
All four pleaded not guilty to murder, as well as a spate of other offences in the days before Cassius was attacked.
In those cases, two other boys were assaulted and threatened as the group tried to find the people responsible for damaging Brearley’s car windows. All four – along with a fifth man, Ethan Mackenzie – were found guilty of those offences.
Turvey said those secondary victims, who “should be enjoying the joys of childhood have been thrust into a world of fear”.
Of her son, she said he was just a “baby, a gentle giant”, who was due to start a part-time job at Kmart the week after he died.
He had also begun a community lawnmowing business, she said, to prove young Aboriginal men could be responsible, to be independent, and to “set an example for others to follow”.
“Cassius was respected at school by his peers and teachers,” she said.
“A true leader and a good friend.”
She spoke about how Cassius’ death was “compounded” by the death of his father just two months before her son was murdered.
She spoke of anxiety, nightmares and panic attacks she had suffered since the incident.
“There are no words that can fully capture the devastation of losing someone you truly love to violence,” she said.
“Cassius was not just part of my life, he was my future, my family, my home.
“The day he was taken from us is the day my world shattered. He was murdered. The truth is something I live with every single day.
“I will never see him grow older, I will never hear his voice again, never feel the comfort of his embrace. The grief is immeasurable.”
Brearley, Forth, Mitchell, Palmer and Gilmore will be sentenced on Friday.
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