Latest / The Front / Aboriginal boy Cassius Turvey’s murder ‘not about race’

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Aboriginal boy Cassius Turvey’s murder ‘not about race’ · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Monday, February seventeen. Three foreign born people with criminal
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  Speaker 1: convictions will be deported to Nauru under a deal struck
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  Speaker 1: by Immigration Minister Tony Burke. They're part of a group
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  Speaker 1: the government has been unable to deport or detain after
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  Speaker 1: a High Court ruling, despite some having committed violent offenses,
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  Speaker 1: including murder. Now the government's looking for more deals to
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  Speaker 1: resettle the remaining two hundred and eighty plus people. Anthony
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Alberanezi's approval rating has hit a record low, and a
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  Speaker 1: majority of voters don't think Labor should be re elected.
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  Speaker 1: Those newsport figures are exclusively at the Australian dot com
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  Speaker 1: dou right now. It's a shocking case. A fifteen year
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  Speaker 1: old na Yamachi boy in his school uniform savagely beaten
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  Speaker 1: in Perth's suburbs. Cassius Turvy's death was murder according to prosecutors,
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  Speaker 1: but they say it was not a racially motivated attack.
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  Speaker 1: Four adults have pleaded not guilty to murdering Cassius in
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. Today, the huge and complex trial underway
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  Speaker 1: in Western Australia. On October thirteen, twenty twenty two, Cassius Turvy,
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  Speaker 1: a fifteen year old schoolboy from Perth's Nunga Yamachi community,
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  Speaker 1: stepped off a bus with a group of friends and
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  Speaker 1: began the walk home. Within hours, Cassius would be in
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  Speaker 1: hospital with lacerations and two brain bleeds. Ten days later
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  Speaker 1: he was dead. Vigils were held around Australia and overseas
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  Speaker 1: for cassius.
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  Speaker 2: One tragic death uniting the community. There were fifteen five
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  Speaker 2: pits at the ceremony, one to mark each year of
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  Speaker 2: Cassius Turvey's life. Cassius's mother has called for unity, not division.
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  Speaker 3: Do not use my son's tragedy as a platform to
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  Speaker 3: blow your trumpets.
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  Speaker 1: Now, a ten week trial is underway with four adults
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  Speaker 1: accused of Cassius's murder. All the accused are non Indigenous,
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  Speaker 1: but prosecutor Ben Stanwick's sc told the jury their alleged
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  Speaker 1: attack on an Aboriginal child was not about race.
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  Speaker 4: The prosecutor's been very clear to the jury that this
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  Speaker 4: was not a racially motivated crime.
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  Speaker 1: Page Tailor's, the Australian's Indigenous Affairs correspondent and she's covering
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  Speaker 1: the trial.
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  Speaker 4: He has told them you are going to hear some
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  Speaker 4: racially tainted language, and as an example, he said black this,
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  Speaker 4: black that. But the jury has been told it will
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  Speaker 4: be wrong for them to believe that Cassius was targeted
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  Speaker 4: because he was Aboriginal.
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  Speaker 1: Stanwicks told the jury there had been claims the incident
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  Speaker 1: was racially motivated, but anyone who said that had not
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  Speaker 1: heard or seen one shred of evidence. That message was
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  Speaker 1: echoed by the defense for at least one of the accused,
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  Speaker 1: who said any suggestion this was a race crime was misinformed,
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  Speaker 1: ill advised and misguided. Murder is a Supreme Court matter
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  Speaker 1: in Western Australia, and this is being heard by the
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  Speaker 1: States Chief Justice Peter Quinlan. But this trial is being
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  Speaker 1: heard in one of the state's modern court rooms, in
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  Speaker 1: the District Court.
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  Speaker 4: It's a very large room. I can see ten lawyers
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  Speaker 4: there every day and they are up the front near
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  Speaker 4: the Chief Justice Peter Quinlan. The five accused in the
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  Speaker 4: dock facing the jury, who are on the other side
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  Speaker 4: of the room. The public galleri has been pretty full
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  Speaker 4: at times, and in fact the public gallery has been
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  Speaker 4: so full at times that the media goes to a
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  Speaker 4: media room where they can see what's going on from
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  Speaker 4: a screen.
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  Speaker 1: They accused are Jack Briley and Alisia Gilmore, both twenty three,
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  Speaker 1: along with twenty six year old Mitchell Fourth and twenty
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  Speaker 1: nine year old Brodie Palmer. Each has their own lawyers,
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  Speaker 1: and Brodie Palmer is represented by former Commonwealth Attorney General
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  Speaker 1: Christian Porter. They've all pleaded not guilty, but this case
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  Speaker 1: is full of twists and turns, including two of the
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  Speaker 1: men in the dock pointing the finger at one another.
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  Speaker 4: All the jury has been told the story of how
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  Speaker 4: Cassiers came to be murdered is remarkable for the way
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  Speaker 4: that his death was the endpoint of a series of
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  Speaker 4: events that had absolutely nothing to do with him.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, according to the Crown, it's a tangled story
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  Speaker 1: of teenage love and mistaken identity.
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  Speaker 4: The prosecutor Ben Stanwick sc has told the jury that
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  Speaker 4: the genesis of this in fact a dispute between Alisha
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  Speaker 4: Gilmore's much younger brother. He was a fourteen year old
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  Speaker 4: boy at the time and he was dating a girl
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  Speaker 4: who had previously dated another boy around the same age,
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  Speaker 4: and the prosecutors telling the jury keep in mind when
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  Speaker 4: we say dating. These are fourteen year olds who had
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  Speaker 4: been seeing each other for a matter of days. So
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  Speaker 4: there was some tension apparently between this fourteen year old
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  Speaker 4: boy and the other boy who had previously dated his girlfriend,
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  Speaker 4: and this tension is alleged to have triggered a series
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  Speaker 4: of disputes. The boy's older sister is Alisha Gilmore, the
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  Speaker 4: girlfriend of Jack Brieley, and somehow they became involved in
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  Speaker 4: this dispute which appears to have got bigger and escalated.
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  Speaker 4: At one point, Jack Brealley's windows were smashed, and on
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  Speaker 4: the day that Cassius was attacked, the prosecution says Jack
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  Speaker 4: Breally was looking looking for revenge for his broken windows.
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  Speaker 1: The jury heard really had said this. We've used a
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  Speaker 1: voice actor to bring you the words read aloud to
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  Speaker 1: the jury, allegedly spoken by Jack Brealley.
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  Speaker 4: Somebody smashed my car windows.
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  Speaker 3: They're about to die.
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  Speaker 1: What the Crown is attempting to show the jury is
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  Speaker 1: an escalating series of violent events. Four days before Cassius
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  Speaker 1: was beaten, the Crown says Jack Mitchell fourth and another man,
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  Speaker 1: Ethan Mackenzie, were involved in an assault on another fifteen
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  Speaker 1: year old boy.
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  Speaker 4: They say that three men that's Jack Brealley, Mitchell fourth
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  Speaker 4: and Ethan mackenzie were driving around looking to find some
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  Speaker 4: kids who had been making threats online. It was all
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  Speaker 4: part of what the prosecution said were petty grievances. And
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  Speaker 4: the prosecution says that on that day, four days before
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  Speaker 4: Cassius was attacked, they did find a boy, Cassius, age fifteen.
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  Speaker 4: They weren't looking for Cassius, they were looking for kids
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  Speaker 4: that had been involved in this dispute, and the prosecution
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  Speaker 4: claims that they deprived this boy of his liberty. Driving
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  Speaker 4: around in the car, the jury saw some CCTV footage
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  Speaker 4: which appeared to show three large figures dragging and kicking
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  Speaker 4: and attacking this boy, and the prosecution says, that's Jack Breeley,
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  Speaker 4: that's Mitchell fourth, and that's Ethan McKenzie delivering some rough
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  Speaker 4: justice onto this child.
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  Speaker 1: And that's when someone tried to intervene a local man
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  Speaker 1: who saw this alleged attack unfolding.
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  Speaker 4: The CCTV that was played to the jury shows in
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  Speaker 4: the middle of this scene, a sixty eight year old
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  Speaker 4: man comes out of his own home. He sees what's
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  Speaker 4: going on, and his name's Reginald Burgess. The jury has
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  Speaker 4: been told and Reginald Burgess says to this group of
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  Speaker 4: men who are attacking a child, get out of here, police,
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  Speaker 4: and you can hear a male voice saying back to
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  Speaker 4: mister Burgess, get out of it, dog walk away.
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  Speaker 1: The Crown says, at some point during this alleged attack,
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  Speaker 1: the group realized they'd got the wrong kid, that whomever
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  Speaker 1: they were looking for it wasn't him.
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  Speaker 4: This kid had nothing to do with the group they
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  Speaker 4: were looking for, and they allegedly took him home, cleaned
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  Speaker 4: him up a bit, and gave him a Nintendo switch
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  Speaker 4: and a pair of shoes and tried to smooth things over.
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  Speaker 1: Ethan Mackenzie, Jack Breally, and Mitchell Fourth are accused of
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  Speaker 1: assaulting this boy, and Brealley's girlfriend, Alicia Gilmore is accused
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  Speaker 1: of detaining the boy. They've all pleaded not guilty to
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  Speaker 1: all charges coming up. After the break, the accused men
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  Speaker 1: turn on one another. Any trial with five accused is
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: going to be complicated and detailed. The jury will have
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  Speaker 1: to absorb a lot of evidence before they retire to
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  Speaker 1: deliberate on their verdict, and part of that complexity is
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: that four people are charged with Cassius's murder, even though
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  Speaker 1: only one is alleged to have struck him with a
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  Speaker 1: metal pole.
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  Speaker 4: Well, the prosecution says only Jack really struck the blows,
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  Speaker 4: but the other three are guilty of murder because of
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  Speaker 4: their roles on the day. They say that his friend
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  Speaker 4: Mitchell fourth is guilty of murder, and they say that
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  Speaker 4: Brodie is too, because they were there on the day
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  Speaker 4: and met the criteria for murder, which does not require
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  Speaker 4: the person to have actually struck any blows. They need
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  Speaker 4: to have shared a common purpose. For example, Jack b
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  Speaker 4: Really was the twenty one year old who had done
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  Speaker 4: a shift earlier that day at his job as a paver,
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  Speaker 4: But according to the prosecution, him and his friends and
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  Speaker 4: his girlfriend at the time line had been involving themselves
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  Speaker 4: in the disputes of local children, and according to the prosecution,
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  Speaker 4: Jack was extremely angry that his car windows had been broken.
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  Speaker 4: This was allegedly part of these ongoing disputes involving local kids,
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  Speaker 4: and he set out, according to the prosecution, to hurt
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  Speaker 4: someone that day, and that's when he is alleged to
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  Speaker 4: have come across this group of children.
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  Speaker 1: Glimpses of Bally have popped up in witness testimony in
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  Speaker 1: the trials first few days, with young people telling the
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  Speaker 1: court they saw brilliant a car pulling up and asking
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  Speaker 1: where a particular group of young boys was in the
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  Speaker 1: days before the attack on Cassius. One young witness told
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  Speaker 1: the court really said to us if we were lying,
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  Speaker 1: he was going to smash our heads. In what do
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  Speaker 1: you think will be the defense of Jack Breally?
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  Speaker 4: So far we've heard from Simon Waters, the very senior
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  Speaker 4: defense lawyer for mister Breeley, and he has said that
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  Speaker 4: it was not Jack really at all that hit Cassius
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  Speaker 4: that day. It was Brody Palmer, who was twenty seven
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  Speaker 4: at the time, and that man was his friend back then,
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  Speaker 4: and they're sitting in the dock together pointing the finger
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  Speaker 4: at one another.
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  Speaker 1: What has said his client, Jack Brealley, chased Cassius into
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  Speaker 1: bushland and that Cassius was armed with a knife. What
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  Speaker 1: has said Cassius slashed Breeley's leg about three times? What
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  Speaker 1: has said really punched Cassius but then watched as Brody
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  Speaker 1: Palmer hit Cassius with a metal pole. Breally's case is that,
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  Speaker 1: in fact, he yelled at Brody Palmer to stop. Brially
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  Speaker 1: says Palmer then threatened him, saying Brilly and his girlfriend
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  Speaker 1: would be dead and in body bags if they told
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  Speaker 1: anyone what had happened. Brody Palmer's represented by Christian Porter,
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  Speaker 1: the former Attorney General. He's now practicing as a barrister.
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  Speaker 1: What's Christian Porter saying in Brodie Palmer's defense?
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  Speaker 4: Will Mister Porter has addressed the jury and he's told
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  Speaker 4: them this is a tragedy. This is the story of
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  Speaker 4: a beautiful fifteen year old boy who had his life
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  Speaker 4: cut short in the most disgusting of circumstances. And then
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  Speaker 4: he went on to say that his own client had
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  Speaker 4: behaved appallingly on that day.
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  Speaker 1: Here's a voice actor reading the words spoken in court
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  Speaker 1: by Christian Porter.
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  Speaker 3: At no point will I try to put any lipstick
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  Speaker 3: on the pig of my client's atrocious behavior. He was
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  Speaker 3: behaving in an utterly and totally appalling way, but he
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  Speaker 3: did not strike Cassius Turvy.
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  Speaker 4: So he's telling the jury that while his client did
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: some things that were appalling and there are no excuses,
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  Speaker 4: he's not guilty of murder.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Christian Porter said vis of Jack Breally, the man the
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Crown says is the real attacker.
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  Speaker 3: He is pointing the finger at his former friend to
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: save his own skin. This is the desperate act of
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: someone who had proved to be a thug, a bully
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  Speaker 3: and a coward.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Page Taylors are Indigenous Affairs right now, and she's one
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: of the smartest and most diligent journals around. We can't
• 13:19
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• 13:22
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• 13:29
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