{"id":29536,"date":"2025-06-27T05:27:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T09:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=29536"},"modified":"2025-06-27T05:27:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T09:27:06","slug":"two-men-jailed-for-life-for-murder-of-aboriginal-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2025\/06\/27\/two-men-jailed-for-life-for-murder-of-aboriginal-boy\/","title":{"rendered":"Two men jailed for life for murder of Aboriginal boy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ssrcss-suhx0k-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1o5p6v2-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Two men have been sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering an Aboriginal schoolboy, in a case that shocked Australia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Cassius Turvey died of head injuries after a brutal assault on the outskirts of Perth in October 2022. The 15-year-old&#8217;s killing prompted nationwide protests and vigils, also sparking\u00a0<a class=\"ssrcss-f6h2dj-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-australia-63467134\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">debate on pervasive racism<\/a>\u00a0in the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The killers,\u00a0<a class=\"ssrcss-f6h2dj-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/ce9vzzxpdm7o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jack Brearley and Brodie Palmer<\/a>, were &#8220;callous and lacking in empathy&#8221; as they chased Turvey down and savagely beat the Noongar Yamatji boy with a metal pole, Justice Peter Quinlan told a packed courtroom on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Mitchell Forth, who was convicted of manslaughter, was sentenced to 12 years in jail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-suhx0k-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1o5p6v2-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The gallery cheered as Justice Quinlan handed down the sentences, while Cassius&#8217; mother Mechelle Turvey burst into tears, local media reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Prosecutors had told the trial the attack on Cassius was the culmination of a complex series of tit-for-tat events that had nothing to do with him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The vigilante gang responsible for his death had been &#8220;hunting for kids&#8221; because somebody had damaged Brearley&#8217;s car windows.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Brearley, 24, and Palmer, 30, had each blamed the other for Cassius&#8217; death, with Brearley also alleging that he acted in self-defence as Cassius was armed with a knife.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Justice Quinlan rejected that as a &#8220;complete fabrication&#8221;, and found that it was Brearley who had delivered the fatal blows.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Cassius Turvey was completely and utterly innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever. The only reason that he was the person killed&#8230; was that he was the person you happened to catch,&#8221; Justice Quinlan said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Brearley had<b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">\u00a0<\/b>shown &#8220;no remorse whatsoever&#8221;, the judge added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;You cannot make amends when you don&#8217;t acknowledge the pain that you have caused.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;You cannot be remorseful when in an effort to avoid responsibility\u2026 You seek to frame an innocent man and when that does not work you give false evidence that your co-accused was in fact the killer,&#8221; the chief justice said in a scathing rebuke reported by ABC News.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Palmer did not physically strike Cassius, but Justice Quinlan ruled that he was &#8220;equally responsible but not equally culpable&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The group had also assaulted other Aboriginal teenagers in what the judge described as &#8220;so-called vigilante justice [that] was completely misdirected&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A fourth offender, Ethan MacKenzie, was handed a two-and-a-half years jail term for his part in some of the other assaults.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In one case, a 13-year-old boy&#8217;s own crutches were used to beat him, causing bruising to his face.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Justice Quinlan condemned Brearley, Palmer and Forth for their &#8220;celebration&#8221; after the assaults, calling it a &#8220;grotesque display of your complete disregard of the lives of the children you had attacked&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In her victim impact statement on Thursday, Cassius&#8217; mother Mechelle Turvey said the actions of the three men were racially motivated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Cassius was not just part of my life, he was my future,&#8221; Ms Turvey said. &#8220;There are no words that can fully capture the devastation of losing someone you love to violence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">While Justice Quinlan did not find the attack to be motivated by race, he said the attackers&#8217; use of racial slurs &#8220;rippled&#8221; through the Aboriginal community and created &#8220;justifiable fear&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The fear is real and legitimate. You are responsible for that fear,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cwyq7de59r1o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">Two men have been sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering an Aboriginal schoolboy, in a case that shocked Australia. Cassius Turvey died of head injuries after a brutal assault on the outskirts of Perth in <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2025\/06\/27\/two-men-jailed-for-life-for-murder-of-aboriginal-boy\/\" title=\"Two men jailed for life for murder of Aboriginal boy\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[350,2,6],"tags":[1220,819,11411,6399,11412,597,2063],"class_list":{"0":"post-29536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"category-news","9":"category-world","10":"tag-aboriginal","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-indigenous-australians","13":"tag-perth","14":"tag-pervasive-racism","15":"tag-racism","16":"tag-vigilantes","17":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29538,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29536\/revisions\/29538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}