Cassius Turvey murder trial: Teen claims accused threatened to kill him after they allegedly assaulted him

The teenager allegedly stabbed and then forced into a car by some of the people accused of murdering Cassius Turvey has told a WA court they threatened to “kill” him if he ran. The alleged incident took place a few days before the Indigenous teenager was chased down and hit in the head with a metal pole in October 2022. Jack Brearley, Aleesha Gilmore, Brodie Palmer and Mitchell Forth are on trial in the WA Supreme Court defending claims they murdered the 15-year-old boy. Mr Brearley, Ms Gilmore, Mr Forth and another man Ethan MacKenzie are also accused of detaining two different teens before the attack on Cassius. The three men also accused of assaulting one of them on October 9, 2022. During the hearing, the court was told the quartet had gone searching for a group of boys after alleged threats had been made against Ms Gilmore’s younger brother Cody. In his evidence, the teen, who can’t be identified, told the court he had been in Swan View that day with two of his mates to confront a different teenager who wanted to fight him. He then saw another group of teens being chased by a group of men who had got out of a car. A few minutes later that same car pulled up beside him and those in the vehicle got out and yelled out “Oi” and began chasing him and his mates. He then tried to hide by jumping fences and ended up in the veranda of a house and begged the owner to let him hide but the man said ‘no’. Those in the car found him and went over and grabbed him. “I got punched in the face and I fell over,” he told the court. “I got stomped on and then I got pulled up by someone. And I was standing there, and I remember a knife being pulled out. It still had a cover on it. “I didn’t realise what happened, I didn’t realise I had been stabbed. I thought they were trying to scare me.” When asked who stabbed him, the teen said Mr Mackenzie. He also told the court it was Mr Brearley who allegedly punched him first and that all three young men “stomped” on his head while he was lying on the ground. “Jack picked me up by collar of my shirt,” he said. “I was standing there being held and saw Ethan pull out a knife and I thought it had a cover on. “He’s poked me in the stomach. Just under the ribs on the right side of my body. “I didn’t feel it at first. When I realised I had been stabbed . . . it was very painfu.l” The teenager told the court he was then “dragged along the road” by one of the young men and they were saying; “don’t run or we will kill you”. Mr MacKenzie grabbed his phone and smashed it on the ground before he was dragged to the car. When he was inside the car, he claimed the men kept asking “where are your boys” before they soon realised they had grabbed the wrong person. The court was told the group continued to drive around with the teen as well as three other teens including Cody Gilmore in the car before they eventually returned to the Gilmore home. The teenager told the court once they were inside, Ms Gilmore offered him something to eat and told him to have a shower. When he got out of the shower Ms Gilmore and Mr Brearley kept apologising to him and that they gave him clothes, new shoes and a Nintendo Switch. He said they then dropped him home and told him not “say anything or we will hurt you”. When asked by Mr Brearley’s lawyer, Simon Watters, why he never told his sister what happened to him, with the court told he said he had been injured by barbed wire, the teen said he was worried she would have told police. He also refuted the suggestion he had not been stabbed with a knife. CCTV of the alleged incident was played to the court showing the teen being dragged down the street. When asked by Mr MacKenzie’s lawyer, David Jones, if it was correct that his client was in the car at the time he claimed he was stabbed, then teen agreed. The trial continues.