Cassius Turvey murder trial: Witness claims accused said ‘we got your mate’ moments after attack on teen

One of the men accused of murdering Cassius Turvey allegedly yelled out to the teen’s friends “we got your mate” moments after he allegedly beat him with a metal pole. That is what the WA Supreme Court trial of Jack Brearley, Aleesha Gilmore, Brodie Palmer and Mitchell Forth was told on Thursday as more witnesses took the stand to give their accounts of what they say they saw and heard. Cassius died in hospital from bleeding on the brain ten days after he was chased, then allegedly struck on the head with a metal pole by a group of strangers who had accused him and his friends of smashing a car window on October 13, 2022. Among them was a school friend of the Indigenous teenager who testified he had caught the bus that afternoon with a few others to throw rocks at the Gilmore house. The trial has previously been told that around 19 teenagers had taken the bus to an oval at Middle Swan that afternoon to watch a fight organised on social media between Ms Gilmore’s younger brother and two other teens. It has also been told a few days before Cassius was attacked, Mr Brearley’s car windows had been smashed in retaliation for an alleged attack on another teen, which Mr Brearley, Ms Gilmore, Mr Forth and another man, Ethan MacKenzie, are also on trial for. In his evidence, the teen said a few of his friends were going to the Gilmore house to break windows and that he was going along because he was “bored”. He said when they got off the bus, a black ute drove past and a white skinny blonde woman began yelling at them. A few minutes later, he said the ute pulled up in front of them and two men jumped out – one was skinny, white, wearing light clothing and had a mullet and the other was “big, buff” and had a bald head. He said a verbal altercation then broke out between the skinny man and two of his mates, claiming the skinny man then took a swing at his friend with a metal pole. This prompted him, as well as a few others, to run towards the creek, then the TAFE, he said. After he reached the TAFE car park, he said he turned around and “the tall fella with a mullet came out of the creek bit and said ‘we got your mate’.” The teen said five minutes later, another one of his friends came out, then Cassius with his “half his ear ripped off” and blood everywhere. Earlier, the court was told another one of Cassius’ friends had stated to police just hours after the alleged attack on October 13, in which he said he saw a skinny man with a mullet with a pole yelling at Cassius moments before he hit him. In the statement, the teen said the man “yelled who are they? What is their address?” He then said Cassius responded: “I don’t know”. “I saw the guy swing straight down on Cassius,” the teen said in his statement. The trial has been told hours before the alleged attack on Cassius, the four accused had been intent on finding the people responsible for smashing Mr Brearley’s car windows. The trial continues.