July 1, 2025 • 21 mins
It was the killing that led to protests not just across Australia, but in New Zealand and the United States, too. Because the brutal beating of 15 year old Cassius Turvey while he was walking home from school, didn’t just end the life of a boy who was on a steady path to buck one of Australia's most damning trends: that a young Indigenous man is more likely to go to prison, than to university. The killing also reopened one of this country’s foundational wounds.
Today, WA Today reporter Rebecca Peppiatt, on the sentencing of the killers, last week. And what she understands about the community that birthed these killers, where she herself lives, that she thinks we should know, too.
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S1 (00:02):
From the newsrooms of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
This is the morning edition. I'm Samantha Selinger Morris. It's Wednesday,
July 2nd. It was the killing that led to protests
not just across Australia, but in New Zealand and the
United States too, because the brutal beating of 15 year
(00:23):
old Cassius Turvey while he was walking home from school
didn't just end the life of a boy who was
on a steady path to buck one of Australia's most
damning trends, that a young indigenous man is more likely
to go to prison than to university. The killing also
reopened one of this country's foundational wounds. Today, WA today
(00:47):
reporter Rebecca Peppiatt, on the sentencing of the killers last week,
and what she understands about the community that birthed these killers,
where she herself lives, that she thinks we should know, too. So, Rebecca,
you have been covering the murder of Cassius Turvey since
it occurred nearly three years ago. Now, it made national
(01:09):
headlines at the time, and for good reason. So can
you just remind us what the case was about?
S2 (01:14):
So Cassius was walking home from school in the East
Perth suburb of Middle Swan when he was assaulted. He
had been ambushed by a group of young men who
bashed him over the head with a shopping trolley handle,
and they all went to trial recently. It's a low
(01:35):
socioeconomic area. There are a large contingent of indigenous people
that live here, and there is a lot of crime.
It's a high crime area, and there's definitely a feeling
in this region that if a crime is committed, it's Aboriginals.
It's it's indigenous people, indigenous children. He was with a
(01:56):
group of other indigenous children at the time, so they
were all there for a completely separate reason. The guys
who did it had thought that their car windows had
been smashed by a group of indigenous children, and so
they saw them and just started chasing them. And it
came out in court that the only reason Cassius was
(02:17):
the one who was bashed, he was the only one
that was assaulted is because he was the slowest. Uh,
they just caught him and felt that they had delivered
their punishment and left it there.
S3 (02:28):
It was a murder that shook the nation. An innocent
Aboriginal schoolboy hunted down and brutally bashed in broad daylight.
S4 (02:36):
Around the country. We are feeling this so deeply as
you said, Sarah. We want an end to violence. We
wanted it.
S2 (02:42):
Created a lot of angst in the community. And there
were candlelit vigils and talks of even, uh, riots and retaliation,
not just here, but I think across the country as well.
S5 (02:54):
Rallies are being planned across the nation as anger builds
over the alleged racially motivated murder of Perth schoolboy Cassius Turvey.
S6 (03:02):
Shame. Let me hear you.
S7 (03:05):
This attack that clearly racially motivated, uh, just breaks your heart.
We're a better country than that. And my heart goes
out to the family.
S2 (03:16):
He was an indigenous boy that was, you know, run
down and attacked by a group of white people. And
for that reason, there was this whole sort of racial
element to it that people assumed that it was a
racially motivated assault, whether that's the case or not. That
(03:37):
was kind of delved into through the trial. Definitely. There
were a lot of racial slurs used during the attack
that came out in the trial through evidence. But whether
they were seeking a black person to assault, they denied.
S1 (03:58):
Okay. And I really want to get into the trial
and the sentencing that we've just had. But first, can
you just tell us a little bit more about who
Cassius Turvey was? Because my understanding is from all accounts,
he held great promise. And he actually really wanted to
change the negative stereotype about young Aboriginal people in Australia.
So tell us a bit about him.
S2 (04:17):
Yeah. So he was obviously only 15 unfortunately when he
passed away, but he'd already was doing great things. You know,
he was he'd started a business in the local community,
the Lawnmower Boys, I think it was called with a
group of friends to go around and obviously mow people's lawns.
And his reason for doing that was to change the
(04:38):
stereotypes around young indigenous people in the area, and to
do some good and show that they were responsible, hardworking kids.
So that was one part of it. He was about
to start a part time job at Kmart in the
local town here. Um, he was doing really well at school.
He was well thought of as a kid who was
someone that the other children could, um, lean on and
(05:01):
speak to. And he was a role model for them.
He was spoken a lot about by other people as, uh,
you know, a born leader and, um, someone who really
guided his peers and, you know, definitely would have gone
on to do great things, which just made the whole
thing much sadder than it needed to be, because he
(05:22):
had so much promise yet as a kid.
S1 (05:25):
Okay. And of course, the reason why we're talking about
this case again is because the men responsible for killing
Cassius Turvey, they were just sentenced in the Supreme Court
in Western Australia last week. So tell us what else
unfolded in court.
S2 (05:36):
Uh, there was a lot of information that came out.
It was a four hour sentencing, which is kind of
unheard of for us over here.
S8 (05:42):
It would be bad enough and deserving of condemnation for
you to have committed these offences in response to your
petty grievances, If your victims had actually done anything. But
in this case, none of them had. Your so-called vigilante
justice was completely misdirected.
S2 (06:01):
The judge went into a lot of detail. Chief Justice
Peter Quinlan not only about Cassius. He, um, he did
compare him to Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali, and said that,
you know, he was a born leader and he was
going to go on to, you know, do great things.
And then he delved into the backgrounds of of the
perpetrators themselves and what may have led them to do
(06:26):
what they did. So Jack Brearley will serve a life
sentence in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 22 years.
And Brody Palmer will serve a minimum non-parole period of
18 years. But also on a life sentence, so he
may not get out at that time either. Mitchell Forth
was convicted of manslaughter. The manslaughter of. Of Cassius. The
(06:50):
other two, though, were not. But Alicia Gilmore was charged
with his murder but acquitted, but found guilty of other
crimes in the lead up to his death.
S9 (07:02):
And so? So the chief justice.
S1 (07:03):
Peter Quinlan, he, you know, sort of, I guess, explained
this retribution angle, which I guess has been described as
the reason why this killing has happened. But we know
that Cassius mother, Michelle Turvey, she definitely sees it differently.
She sees this as a racially motivated crime. So why why?
S2 (07:20):
So Michelle at the time went went along with what
the police had, um, put out there. And I believe
that is because they were trying to calm the mood.
There was a lot of elevated tension and emotions around
that time of Cassius death, where the community were reeling
from what had happened and wanted, um, something to be
(07:43):
done about the fact that a lot of indigenous kids
were being targeted as as they fell and the police
obviously went out of their way to try and calm
that down. However, by last week, after the trial had ended,
it was a three month trial earlier this year. By Friday,
when the sentencing was being delivered, Michele stood up in
court and gave a very emotional victim impact statement and
(08:08):
then revealed that she she thought that it was racially
motivated and that her son wouldn't have been killed if
he weren't a black kid. A little bit at odds
with what the police had said, but the judge did
delve into that as well in his sentencing remarks.
S8 (08:23):
So it is no surprise that when a group of
non-Aboriginal adult men set upon a group of predominantly Aboriginal
kids using language like that, and one of those adults
beats a boy so badly that it kills him that
the kids would think that they were being targeted because
they were Aboriginal, and that the attack.
S1 (08:45):
I think there was a particularly heartbreaking moment, wasn't there,
when she, I guess, yelled at Jack Brierley, one of
the men who has been found guilty of the murder,
you know, did you learn your lesson now, Jack? And
that was, I think, in response to something that he
had said or allegedly said during the attack, which is
that he referred to, you know, Cassius learning his lesson,
(09:05):
I guess. So tell us a bit about that.
S2 (09:07):
Yeah. She actually yelled that out from the back of
court as they were being led out of the court
at the end of the sentencing. So there were a
huge contingent of her family and friends and cassius's friends
who came to court almost every single day of the
trial for a three month trial, which is, you know,
unheard of. And she, you know, was extremely respectful of
the court process whilst also hearing horrific evidence because Jack
(09:30):
really after Jack had committed the offence, he was caught
on CCTV cameras. He didn't say this to the police,
but he was overheard on these cameras in the days
after kind of celebrating what he had done. You know,
he'd bashed his this kid and felt vindicated for what
had happened to him. And, you know, they've learned their
lesson now because he felt that he was doling out
(09:52):
punishment to them for something they had done to him.
S8 (09:54):
While he was laying in the field. And I was
just smacking him with the trolley pole so hard that
he goes, he's learnt his lesson. That celebration, in which
all three of you participated, was a grotesque display of
your complete disregard for the lives of the children you
had attacked only hours earlier.
S2 (10:17):
So as he was led out of court on Friday. Yeah.
Michelle stood up and I guess unleashed a whole ton
of emotion that she'd been hanging onto for a very
long time. And she said, you know, have you got
your your punishment now or words to that effect as
he was being led out of the out of the courtroom.
And of course, he didn't look back or say anything
in return. But yeah, it was quite emotional.
S10 (10:40):
Cassius was only a baby, a gentle giant who will
be forever 15. His absence leaves a void that will
never be filled. And our families dreams and plans for
the future have been irrevocably altered. We will never see
him grow into the remarkable person he was destined to become.
S1 (11:08):
We'll be back in a minute.
S9 (11:12):
And it really brings.
S1 (11:12):
Me to your latest piece on this horrific murder. And
I really would encourage listeners to seek it out and
read it, because you actually tackle the question of why
the perpetrators, why these men, you know, committed this horrific crime.
So tell us what you found out about them.
S2 (11:26):
Yeah, it was actually quite sad. They had horrific childhoods, really,
really sad. Drug addict mothers, neglectful homes, disadvantaged homes where
they they didn't have anything like the kind of Guidance, love,
care and attention that any child should have, but also,
quite interestingly, the life that Cassie has had. You know,
(11:49):
he was guided by this strong mother who, um, and
and his father, his father had died, unfortunately, a couple
of months before Cassius did. But he was also a
really strong force in Cassie's life, which obviously led him
to become the kind of kid that he was and
the person that he would have been. But the people
who have actually taken that from him didn't have anything
(12:11):
like those kind of advantages in their youth. They were
living on the edge of poverty and essentially left to
raise themselves. All of them turned to drugs and, you know,
went down a really dark path. And I think just
they they banded together with that and became a gang, almost, um,
(12:32):
and just felt that they were able and, and entitled
to go out and use violence on other people in
almost the same way that it had been done to them.
So while they're not excuses, you know, there's some really
interesting lessons to learn there, I think, from their childhood.
And that was what my story was about, just kind
(12:53):
of looking behind these crimes. And I think the point
I wanted to put across was, you know, it's alright
to try and rehabilitate these people now because that was
a big part of the sentencing submissions on Friday was
that they're going to get a lot of mental health support,
counselling and therapy and drug and alcohol intervention whilst they're
(13:14):
in prison, and that was a big part of what
the judge wanted for them. But it's too late. It's,
you know, they're they're in their 20s now. And um,
potentially if there had been some kind of intervention when
they were younger, um, if they'd been raised differently, who
knows how you could have changed it. But, you know,
essentially this, this crime would never have happened.
S1 (13:36):
Yeah. And it's something that the judge really spoke about
as well, isn't it? Because one of the most striking
lines from your piece is from when the sentencing judge said,
you know, it would be easier to say that these men,
you know, who were responsible for the murder were monsters
rather than human beings. But this would, you know, somewhat
hamper all of us from trying to prevent these crimes
from occurring. So I wanted to ask why you really
delved into the background of the people that committed this crime.
(13:59):
And did you have any trepidation to to write about
the offenders rather than focusing, of course, on Cassius Turvey?
S2 (14:06):
Yeah, I definitely had trepidation. I've been a court reporter
for about three years now, specifically on courts and crime.
And I sit there almost daily and hear these horrific stories.
The saddest place on the planet is the children's court.
If you've ever been to a children's court and you
sit there time and again, these children come up before
(14:28):
the judges and they have the most horrific lives. They're
on the streets. They're going from sofa to sofa. They're
children and they're committing crimes daily. They're stealing. They're bashing people.
They're doing awful things that people want their blood for.
You know, put them away. Lock them up. But hang
on a second. What? How would your life be if
(14:48):
you also had that kind of a childhood and you
were being neglected and you didn't know where you were
getting food from, and you were born with alcohol in
your system or drugs in your system, and drugs and
violence were in front of you on a daily basis.
You know, that's a normal life for them. And it
was almost something out of a movie. One of these
(15:08):
boys that has been convicted was born in the back
of an ambulance, while his mum was high on meth.
No one knows about that. That's not something that people
talk about over their breakfast. Like that's not a thing
that people are ever faced with. They don't walk around
seeing this on the streets, but it's there. And until
(15:28):
we start linking that to these horrendous crimes, it's never
going to change. And it needs to start at the
very least with a conversation.
S11 (15:37):
And you told me before recording.
S1 (15:39):
That, you know, when you do write about the backstory
of people who have committed horrible crimes, you inevitably get
backlash from readers. And I'm just wondering, did you decide
to to face that in this case, anyway, by writing
about the backgrounds of of the perpetrators because it's close
to home for you, right? Like you said, that your
son actually attends the same school that Cassius Turvey went to.
(16:02):
So you have a particular insight into this area, don't you?
S2 (16:05):
Yeah. That's right. And yes, I have had plenty of
backlash over the years from, uh, trying to paint that
other side of the picture. People don't want to hear it.
They only want to know that these people are bad.
They're evil. They are monsters. Like, has been mentioned here. Um,
and they need to pay for their crimes. But there's
(16:27):
always more to it. And yes, in this case, it
was closer to home than usual. And literally and figuratively.
Because I live in the same suburbs as these people.
My kid could have been with those kids with Cassius again.
My my son would have been a friend of Cassius.
He's a few years younger than Cassius would have been. Um,
(16:47):
but he could have been on that bus. He could
have jumped off the bus with his friends and just
ambushing along and just wandering around like they were doing
and being chased. And he could have been the one assaulted.
And when something's that close to home, you really, um,
you really look a bit more deeper at it. There's
not a separation there for me where people can sit
in their ivory towers over on the for us, the,
(17:09):
the west side of Perth, where it's, um, a lot
more affluent and just think, oh, well, that's a suburbs issue.
I live there and it's, it's not just an issue
for that area. I'm sure it's an issue everywhere in
different parts of Australia and it's a bigger issue. You know,
it needs to needs to be talked about.
S11 (17:27):
And Rebecca.
S1 (17:28):
Just to wrap up, tell us about Michelle Turvey and
I guess what her perspective is now on perhaps what
she hopes we take from this horrific killing of her son,
because we know that she actually took on a role
with the police after her son's killing. So. So what
does she do for them? And what does she hope
for the future?
S2 (17:48):
Yeah, she was extremely emotional on Friday and she, I think,
just felt that justice had been served and she felt
happy with with the process and the fact that there
were the convictions for all of them after Cassius was killed.
She spoke out publicly a lot. An extremely intelligent woman
(18:13):
and extremely wise and a tough lady. So, so tough.
She could have very easily at that moment, you know,
spearheaded a riot. You know, she had the capacity for
that because she was so well thought of in the
indigenous community that people were would listen to her and
she brought calm in the community instead. She said, no,
(18:36):
let's let justice take its course. Let's all just calm
and see how this process is going to unfold and
that the police were dealing with it.
S10 (18:44):
I want calm in the community and in the country.
S2 (18:48):
And they were so grateful for that. I think the
police and they were so they were full of admiration
about how she handled the situation, and they literally recruited
her after that and said, Will you come and speak
to our officers in particular, how, um, they could do
better with that cultural issue? So, you know, as organizations
(19:12):
like that tend to be predominantly white, and they're dealing predominantly, predominantly, sadly, with, um, indigenous, um, offenders.
And here was someone who could kind of play a
role that would, um, bring those two together to come
and sit through her own son's murder trial like that
(19:32):
and hear the horrific things that were said and done
to him, is is testament to her strength. And, you know,
hopefully now I think she's just planning to put it
behind her. That's we did speak to her outside of
court on Friday, and she was less than flattering about
the people that had done what they'd done to her son.
And she would be and and the way that things
had unfolded and the fact that they had pleaded not
(19:54):
guilty and took the whole thing to trial, which dragged
out the pain for her and made obviously things harder
for her, and as well as the other children that
were involved. I'd say at this point in time, she
just wants to put it behind her and try and
move on with grieving her son and her husband.
S1 (20:11):
Well, we're so lucky that you've been following this so
closely and written about it with such humanity and nuance.
So thank you so much, Rebecca, for your time.
S2 (20:19):
No worries. Thanks for having me.
S10 (20:24):
My boy talks to me every day through my heart
and tells me what I need to do. That's it
for me.
S1 (20:43):
Today's episode of The Morning Edition was produced by Julia Carcasole.
Our executive producer is Tammy Mills. Tom McKendrick is our
head of audio. To listen to our episodes as soon
as they drop, follow the Morning Edition on Apple, Spotify,
or wherever you listen to podcasts. Our newsrooms are powered
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(21:05):
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of the day's most important news in your inbox every morning.
Links are in the show. Notes. I'm Samantha Selinger. Morris.
Thanks for listening.
From the newsrooms of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
This is the morning edition. I'm Samantha Selinger Morris. It's Wednesday,
July 2nd. It was the killing that led to protests
not just across Australia, but in New Zealand and the
United States too, because the brutal beating of 15 year
(00:23):
old Cassius Turvey while he was walking home from school
didn't just end the life of a boy who was
on a steady path to buck one of Australia's most
damning trends, that a young indigenous man is more likely
to go to prison than to university. The killing also
reopened one of this country's foundational wounds. Today, WA today
(00:47):
reporter Rebecca Peppiatt, on the sentencing of the killers last week,
and what she understands about the community that birthed these killers,
where she herself lives, that she thinks we should know, too. So, Rebecca,
you have been covering the murder of Cassius Turvey since
it occurred nearly three years ago. Now, it made national
(01:09):
headlines at the time, and for good reason. So can
you just remind us what the case was about?
S2 (01:14):
So Cassius was walking home from school in the East
Perth suburb of Middle Swan when he was assaulted. He
had been ambushed by a group of young men who
bashed him over the head with a shopping trolley handle,
and they all went to trial recently. It's a low
(01:35):
socioeconomic area. There are a large contingent of indigenous people
that live here, and there is a lot of crime.
It's a high crime area, and there's definitely a feeling
in this region that if a crime is committed, it's Aboriginals.
It's it's indigenous people, indigenous children. He was with a
(01:56):
group of other indigenous children at the time, so they
were all there for a completely separate reason. The guys
who did it had thought that their car windows had
been smashed by a group of indigenous children, and so
they saw them and just started chasing them. And it
came out in court that the only reason Cassius was
(02:17):
the one who was bashed, he was the only one
that was assaulted is because he was the slowest. Uh,
they just caught him and felt that they had delivered
their punishment and left it there.
S3 (02:28):
It was a murder that shook the nation. An innocent
Aboriginal schoolboy hunted down and brutally bashed in broad daylight.
S4 (02:36):
Around the country. We are feeling this so deeply as
you said, Sarah. We want an end to violence. We
wanted it.
S2 (02:42):
Created a lot of angst in the community. And there
were candlelit vigils and talks of even, uh, riots and retaliation,
not just here, but I think across the country as well.
S5 (02:54):
Rallies are being planned across the nation as anger builds
over the alleged racially motivated murder of Perth schoolboy Cassius Turvey.
S6 (03:02):
Shame. Let me hear you.
S7 (03:05):
This attack that clearly racially motivated, uh, just breaks your heart.
We're a better country than that. And my heart goes
out to the family.
S2 (03:16):
He was an indigenous boy that was, you know, run
down and attacked by a group of white people. And
for that reason, there was this whole sort of racial
element to it that people assumed that it was a
racially motivated assault, whether that's the case or not. That
(03:37):
was kind of delved into through the trial. Definitely. There
were a lot of racial slurs used during the attack
that came out in the trial through evidence. But whether
they were seeking a black person to assault, they denied.
S1 (03:58):
Okay. And I really want to get into the trial
and the sentencing that we've just had. But first, can
you just tell us a little bit more about who
Cassius Turvey was? Because my understanding is from all accounts,
he held great promise. And he actually really wanted to
change the negative stereotype about young Aboriginal people in Australia.
So tell us a bit about him.
S2 (04:17):
Yeah. So he was obviously only 15 unfortunately when he
passed away, but he'd already was doing great things. You know,
he was he'd started a business in the local community,
the Lawnmower Boys, I think it was called with a
group of friends to go around and obviously mow people's lawns.
And his reason for doing that was to change the
(04:38):
stereotypes around young indigenous people in the area, and to
do some good and show that they were responsible, hardworking kids.
So that was one part of it. He was about
to start a part time job at Kmart in the
local town here. Um, he was doing really well at school.
He was well thought of as a kid who was
someone that the other children could, um, lean on and
(05:01):
speak to. And he was a role model for them.
He was spoken a lot about by other people as, uh,
you know, a born leader and, um, someone who really
guided his peers and, you know, definitely would have gone
on to do great things, which just made the whole
thing much sadder than it needed to be, because he
(05:22):
had so much promise yet as a kid.
S1 (05:25):
Okay. And of course, the reason why we're talking about
this case again is because the men responsible for killing
Cassius Turvey, they were just sentenced in the Supreme Court
in Western Australia last week. So tell us what else
unfolded in court.
S2 (05:36):
Uh, there was a lot of information that came out.
It was a four hour sentencing, which is kind of
unheard of for us over here.
S8 (05:42):
It would be bad enough and deserving of condemnation for
you to have committed these offences in response to your
petty grievances, If your victims had actually done anything. But
in this case, none of them had. Your so-called vigilante
justice was completely misdirected.
S2 (06:01):
The judge went into a lot of detail. Chief Justice
Peter Quinlan not only about Cassius. He, um, he did
compare him to Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali, and said that,
you know, he was a born leader and he was
going to go on to, you know, do great things.
And then he delved into the backgrounds of of the
perpetrators themselves and what may have led them to do
(06:26):
what they did. So Jack Brearley will serve a life
sentence in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 22 years.
And Brody Palmer will serve a minimum non-parole period of
18 years. But also on a life sentence, so he
may not get out at that time either. Mitchell Forth
was convicted of manslaughter. The manslaughter of. Of Cassius. The
(06:50):
other two, though, were not. But Alicia Gilmore was charged
with his murder but acquitted, but found guilty of other
crimes in the lead up to his death.
S9 (07:02):
And so? So the chief justice.
S1 (07:03):
Peter Quinlan, he, you know, sort of, I guess, explained
this retribution angle, which I guess has been described as
the reason why this killing has happened. But we know
that Cassius mother, Michelle Turvey, she definitely sees it differently.
She sees this as a racially motivated crime. So why why?
S2 (07:20):
So Michelle at the time went went along with what
the police had, um, put out there. And I believe
that is because they were trying to calm the mood.
There was a lot of elevated tension and emotions around
that time of Cassius death, where the community were reeling
from what had happened and wanted, um, something to be
(07:43):
done about the fact that a lot of indigenous kids
were being targeted as as they fell and the police
obviously went out of their way to try and calm
that down. However, by last week, after the trial had ended,
it was a three month trial earlier this year. By Friday,
when the sentencing was being delivered, Michele stood up in
court and gave a very emotional victim impact statement and
(08:08):
then revealed that she she thought that it was racially
motivated and that her son wouldn't have been killed if
he weren't a black kid. A little bit at odds
with what the police had said, but the judge did
delve into that as well in his sentencing remarks.
S8 (08:23):
So it is no surprise that when a group of
non-Aboriginal adult men set upon a group of predominantly Aboriginal
kids using language like that, and one of those adults
beats a boy so badly that it kills him that
the kids would think that they were being targeted because
they were Aboriginal, and that the attack.
S1 (08:45):
I think there was a particularly heartbreaking moment, wasn't there,
when she, I guess, yelled at Jack Brierley, one of
the men who has been found guilty of the murder,
you know, did you learn your lesson now, Jack? And
that was, I think, in response to something that he
had said or allegedly said during the attack, which is
that he referred to, you know, Cassius learning his lesson,
(09:05):
I guess. So tell us a bit about that.
S2 (09:07):
Yeah. She actually yelled that out from the back of
court as they were being led out of the court
at the end of the sentencing. So there were a
huge contingent of her family and friends and cassius's friends
who came to court almost every single day of the
trial for a three month trial, which is, you know,
unheard of. And she, you know, was extremely respectful of
the court process whilst also hearing horrific evidence because Jack
(09:30):
really after Jack had committed the offence, he was caught
on CCTV cameras. He didn't say this to the police,
but he was overheard on these cameras in the days
after kind of celebrating what he had done. You know,
he'd bashed his this kid and felt vindicated for what
had happened to him. And, you know, they've learned their
lesson now because he felt that he was doling out
(09:52):
punishment to them for something they had done to him.
S8 (09:54):
While he was laying in the field. And I was
just smacking him with the trolley pole so hard that
he goes, he's learnt his lesson. That celebration, in which
all three of you participated, was a grotesque display of
your complete disregard for the lives of the children you
had attacked only hours earlier.
S2 (10:17):
So as he was led out of court on Friday. Yeah.
Michelle stood up and I guess unleashed a whole ton
of emotion that she'd been hanging onto for a very
long time. And she said, you know, have you got
your your punishment now or words to that effect as
he was being led out of the out of the courtroom.
And of course, he didn't look back or say anything
in return. But yeah, it was quite emotional.
S10 (10:40):
Cassius was only a baby, a gentle giant who will
be forever 15. His absence leaves a void that will
never be filled. And our families dreams and plans for
the future have been irrevocably altered. We will never see
him grow into the remarkable person he was destined to become.
S1 (11:08):
We'll be back in a minute.
S9 (11:12):
And it really brings.
S1 (11:12):
Me to your latest piece on this horrific murder. And
I really would encourage listeners to seek it out and
read it, because you actually tackle the question of why
the perpetrators, why these men, you know, committed this horrific crime.
So tell us what you found out about them.
S2 (11:26):
Yeah, it was actually quite sad. They had horrific childhoods, really,
really sad. Drug addict mothers, neglectful homes, disadvantaged homes where
they they didn't have anything like the kind of Guidance, love,
care and attention that any child should have, but also,
quite interestingly, the life that Cassie has had. You know,
(11:49):
he was guided by this strong mother who, um, and
and his father, his father had died, unfortunately, a couple
of months before Cassius did. But he was also a
really strong force in Cassie's life, which obviously led him
to become the kind of kid that he was and
the person that he would have been. But the people
who have actually taken that from him didn't have anything
(12:11):
like those kind of advantages in their youth. They were
living on the edge of poverty and essentially left to
raise themselves. All of them turned to drugs and, you know,
went down a really dark path. And I think just
they they banded together with that and became a gang, almost, um,
(12:32):
and just felt that they were able and, and entitled
to go out and use violence on other people in
almost the same way that it had been done to them.
So while they're not excuses, you know, there's some really
interesting lessons to learn there, I think, from their childhood.
And that was what my story was about, just kind
(12:53):
of looking behind these crimes. And I think the point
I wanted to put across was, you know, it's alright
to try and rehabilitate these people now because that was
a big part of the sentencing submissions on Friday was
that they're going to get a lot of mental health support,
counselling and therapy and drug and alcohol intervention whilst they're
(13:14):
in prison, and that was a big part of what
the judge wanted for them. But it's too late. It's,
you know, they're they're in their 20s now. And um,
potentially if there had been some kind of intervention when
they were younger, um, if they'd been raised differently, who
knows how you could have changed it. But, you know,
essentially this, this crime would never have happened.
S1 (13:36):
Yeah. And it's something that the judge really spoke about
as well, isn't it? Because one of the most striking
lines from your piece is from when the sentencing judge said,
you know, it would be easier to say that these men,
you know, who were responsible for the murder were monsters
rather than human beings. But this would, you know, somewhat
hamper all of us from trying to prevent these crimes
from occurring. So I wanted to ask why you really
delved into the background of the people that committed this crime.
(13:59):
And did you have any trepidation to to write about
the offenders rather than focusing, of course, on Cassius Turvey?
S2 (14:06):
Yeah, I definitely had trepidation. I've been a court reporter
for about three years now, specifically on courts and crime.
And I sit there almost daily and hear these horrific stories.
The saddest place on the planet is the children's court.
If you've ever been to a children's court and you
sit there time and again, these children come up before
(14:28):
the judges and they have the most horrific lives. They're
on the streets. They're going from sofa to sofa. They're
children and they're committing crimes daily. They're stealing. They're bashing people.
They're doing awful things that people want their blood for.
You know, put them away. Lock them up. But hang
on a second. What? How would your life be if
(14:48):
you also had that kind of a childhood and you
were being neglected and you didn't know where you were
getting food from, and you were born with alcohol in
your system or drugs in your system, and drugs and
violence were in front of you on a daily basis.
You know, that's a normal life for them. And it
was almost something out of a movie. One of these
(15:08):
boys that has been convicted was born in the back
of an ambulance, while his mum was high on meth.
No one knows about that. That's not something that people
talk about over their breakfast. Like that's not a thing
that people are ever faced with. They don't walk around
seeing this on the streets, but it's there. And until
(15:28):
we start linking that to these horrendous crimes, it's never
going to change. And it needs to start at the
very least with a conversation.
S11 (15:37):
And you told me before recording.
S1 (15:39):
That, you know, when you do write about the backstory
of people who have committed horrible crimes, you inevitably get
backlash from readers. And I'm just wondering, did you decide
to to face that in this case, anyway, by writing
about the backgrounds of of the perpetrators because it's close
to home for you, right? Like you said, that your
son actually attends the same school that Cassius Turvey went to.
(16:02):
So you have a particular insight into this area, don't you?
S2 (16:05):
Yeah. That's right. And yes, I have had plenty of
backlash over the years from, uh, trying to paint that
other side of the picture. People don't want to hear it.
They only want to know that these people are bad.
They're evil. They are monsters. Like, has been mentioned here. Um,
and they need to pay for their crimes. But there's
(16:27):
always more to it. And yes, in this case, it
was closer to home than usual. And literally and figuratively.
Because I live in the same suburbs as these people.
My kid could have been with those kids with Cassius again.
My my son would have been a friend of Cassius.
He's a few years younger than Cassius would have been. Um,
(16:47):
but he could have been on that bus. He could
have jumped off the bus with his friends and just
ambushing along and just wandering around like they were doing
and being chased. And he could have been the one assaulted.
And when something's that close to home, you really, um,
you really look a bit more deeper at it. There's
not a separation there for me where people can sit
in their ivory towers over on the for us, the,
(17:09):
the west side of Perth, where it's, um, a lot
more affluent and just think, oh, well, that's a suburbs issue.
I live there and it's, it's not just an issue
for that area. I'm sure it's an issue everywhere in
different parts of Australia and it's a bigger issue. You know,
it needs to needs to be talked about.
S11 (17:27):
And Rebecca.
S1 (17:28):
Just to wrap up, tell us about Michelle Turvey and
I guess what her perspective is now on perhaps what
she hopes we take from this horrific killing of her son,
because we know that she actually took on a role
with the police after her son's killing. So. So what
does she do for them? And what does she hope
for the future?
S2 (17:48):
Yeah, she was extremely emotional on Friday and she, I think,
just felt that justice had been served and she felt
happy with with the process and the fact that there
were the convictions for all of them after Cassius was killed.
She spoke out publicly a lot. An extremely intelligent woman
(18:13):
and extremely wise and a tough lady. So, so tough.
She could have very easily at that moment, you know,
spearheaded a riot. You know, she had the capacity for
that because she was so well thought of in the
indigenous community that people were would listen to her and
she brought calm in the community instead. She said, no,
(18:36):
let's let justice take its course. Let's all just calm
and see how this process is going to unfold and
that the police were dealing with it.
S10 (18:44):
I want calm in the community and in the country.
S2 (18:48):
And they were so grateful for that. I think the
police and they were so they were full of admiration
about how she handled the situation, and they literally recruited
her after that and said, Will you come and speak
to our officers in particular, how, um, they could do
better with that cultural issue? So, you know, as organizations
(19:12):
like that tend to be predominantly white, and they're dealing predominantly, predominantly, sadly, with, um, indigenous, um, offenders.
And here was someone who could kind of play a
role that would, um, bring those two together to come
and sit through her own son's murder trial like that
(19:32):
and hear the horrific things that were said and done
to him, is is testament to her strength. And, you know,
hopefully now I think she's just planning to put it
behind her. That's we did speak to her outside of
court on Friday, and she was less than flattering about
the people that had done what they'd done to her son.
And she would be and and the way that things
had unfolded and the fact that they had pleaded not
(19:54):
guilty and took the whole thing to trial, which dragged
out the pain for her and made obviously things harder
for her, and as well as the other children that
were involved. I'd say at this point in time, she
just wants to put it behind her and try and
move on with grieving her son and her husband.
S1 (20:11):
Well, we're so lucky that you've been following this so
closely and written about it with such humanity and nuance.
So thank you so much, Rebecca, for your time.
S2 (20:19):
No worries. Thanks for having me.
S10 (20:24):
My boy talks to me every day through my heart
and tells me what I need to do. That's it
for me.
S1 (20:43):
Today's episode of The Morning Edition was produced by Julia Carcasole.
Our executive producer is Tammy Mills. Tom McKendrick is our
head of audio. To listen to our episodes as soon
as they drop, follow the Morning Edition on Apple, Spotify,
or wherever you listen to podcasts. Our newsrooms are powered
by subscriptions, so to support independent journalism, visit The Age
(21:05):
or smh.com.au. Subscribe. And to stay up to date, sign
up to our Morning Edition newsletter to receive a summary
of the day's most important news in your inbox every morning.
Links are in the show. Notes. I'm Samantha Selinger. Morris.
Thanks for listening.
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