Girls tell of bloody incidents before teen’s alleged murder

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned the following article contains names and images of a deceased person.

Blood, boys in balaclavas, a scruffy mullet and a jealous ex-boyfriend feature in two teenagers' account of events before Cassius Turvey was allegedly beaten to death.

Cassius, a 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy, died in hospital 10 days after he was "caught, knocked to the ground and deliberately struck to the head with a metal pole" in Perth's eastern suburbs on October 13, 2022.

Jack Steven James Brearley, 23, Brodie Lee Palmer, 29, Mitchell Colin Forth, 26, and Aleesha Louise Gilmore, 23, are on trial in the Western Australian Supreme Court for his murder.

Prosecutors say Cassius' death was "the end point of a complex series of events that had absolutely nothing to do with him".

They started on October 9 when Brearley, Gilmore, Forth and another man allegedly "snatched two kids off the street" and punched, kicked and stabbed one of them, the court has been told.

That incident was allegedly sparked by a "love triangle" involving Gilmore's 14-year-old brother Cody, his then-girlfriend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and her ex-boyfriend.

Cody's girlfriend on Wednesday told the court Cody ran away when they spotted her former beau with a bunch of boys.

Cody reappeared in a car with a mate, Gilmore, and her then-boyfriend Brearley, who shouted: "Where did all them boys go?" and "You better not be lying to us", she said from the witness box.

"He was, like, in the middle of the road, and he was screaming at us," she said of Brearley, who the prosecution alleges struck Cassius with a pole pulled from a shopping trolley.

"He was just angry, like angry talking."

The court heard the car drove off to look for the ex-boyfriend's group who Cody believed wanted to "mob" him.

She and her friends saw the car again later in the day with two more boys sitting in the back seat.

"One had blood all over him," the girl, now 16, said.

Another teenage girl present on the day said Cody and the "jealous" ex-boyfriend, who also can't be named, argued by text message before agreeing to meet for a fight.

Some of the boys with the ex-boyfriend were wearing balaclavas, she said.

She also recalled events when the car pulled up, but she said it wasn't Brearley who got out but another person, Forth.

"Mitchell got out of the car, he was like really angry and he said where is (boys' names) and they drove off," she said.

"He said that if were lying he was going to smash our heads in."

She said the second time she spotted the car, Cody was inside and Forth was "more angry" and this time he asked about the ex-boyfriend.

Asked to describe Forth's hair at the time, the girl said he had a "scruffy mullet".

The next incident allegedly happened three days later on October 12 when a group of school-aged kids went to Gilmore's home and "almost certainly in retribution" smashed the windows of Brearley's car, the jury was told on the first day of the trial.

The following day, Gilmore's brothers warned her that a group of teens could be coming to their family home where Brearley also lived, looking for a fight.

Brearley, Forth and Palmer allegedly armed themselves with metal poles pulled from shopping trolleys and knuckle dusters and drove off to search for youths with Gilmore.

"Somebody smashed my car and they're about to die," Brearley allegedly said according to a prosecutor.

They allegedly found a group of about 20 school-aged teens, including Cassius.

Brearley was "hunting for kids with a metal pole" and Cassius and some of the other "terrified school kids" fled into nearby bushland, the court was told.

"Cassius didn't make it as far as the fence when the accused Brearley caught up with him," the prosecutor said.

"He was struck to the head at least twice."

The trial continues on Thursday.

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