Cassius Turvey’s friends tell murder trial they saw him fatally injured after accused chased boys with poles

Two of Cassius Turvey’s friends have recounted seeing their mate fatally injured, with one saying the horror he’d seen had weighed on him every day since. Jack Brearley and his girlfriend Aleesha Gilmore, both 23, Mitchell Forth, 26, and Brodie Palmer, 29, are on trial in the Supreme Court of WA, charged with murdering the Indigenous 15-year-old. Wearing his uniform and walking home from school, he was chased into bushland in Middle Swan where a group of teens had gathered to watch a fight on October 13, 2022. He was hit with a shopping trolley pole and died in hospital 10 days later. On Friday, a friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, testified that he saw a ute pull up and two Caucasian men jumped out. “And that’s when all the boys started running ... I just ran ... I was just scared,” he told prosecutor Ben Stanwix. He said one of the men swung a pole at Cassius while shouting at him. “I saw him hit him once,” the witness, who was then aged 13, told the court. He held up his arm to show how Cassius was “trying to, like, cover himself”, saying the injured boy then dropped to the ground, holding his head. “He was like ‘call an ambulance’. “He was bleeding ... he was crying. In pain.” The witness told lawyer Simon Watters, representing Mr Brearley, that what he’d seen weighed on him. “Just living with it every day. It’s hard.” Another friend also recounted seeing two men pull up in a ute and repeatedly shout accusations about smashing windows. It is alleged Mr Brearley was out for vengeance after his car windows were damaged following violent mayhem among local youths days earlier. “They had poles and they came towards us ... and started swinging,” the witness, who was 16 at the time, told the court. “I was confused. I think I just turned around and ran. “I just kept running to the TAFE.” He said he saw Cassius in the car park, “on his own” and “still walking” despite being severely injured and dizzy. “His ear was split and he had a gash in his head.” The witness said that the ute then drove into the car park fast “and did a burnout”. He said he was holding a knife that someone had dropped in the chaos and pulled it out “because they came back around”. Under questioning by Mr Watters, the witness said three other youths had knives but he did not see Cassius holding one. Mr Brearley has claimed that Cassius slashed the back of his left leg with a knife and that he only punched the teen in retaliation as the pair struggled in a creek between the bushland and TAFE. The State and Mr Palmer’s lawyer, Christian Porter, say Mr Brearley hit Cassius with a pole. But Mr Brearley says it was Mr Palmer. The trial continues.