Cassius Turvey's ‘vigilante' killers face life in prison for ‘horrendous' crime
The two men who murdered Indigenous schoolboy Cassius Turvey in Perth's north-east have been jailed for life with minimum parole periods of 22 and 18 years. A third man has been jailed for 12 years for manslaughter and other related charges.
Jack Brearley and Brodie Palmer were each found guilty of the 2022 murder after a three-month trial earlier this year, but Brearley was on Friday singled out as having delivered the killing blows.
Chief Justice Peter Quinlan told the Supreme Court of WA that Brearley killed Cassius during a fit of 'sheer rage and uncontrollable violence', and Palmer 'shared a common purpose' to incite violence and was therefore equally culpable.
He added the assaults were committed 'as part of vigilante activity … against innocent children'.
'None of your victims had done anything whatsoever to any of you,' he said.
'It would be bad enough for you to commit these offences if your victims had actually done anything, but in this case none of them had.
'Your vigilante justice was completely misdirected.'
Mitchell Forth, 26, who was found guilty of manslaughter, was sentenced to 10 years, reduced to nine for mitigating circumstances, plus an extra two years for other offences committed in the days leading up to Cassius' death.

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an hour ago
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Editorial: Life sentences are the nearest thing to justice for Cassius
Cassius Turvey would be 17 years old, if he were alive today. If his life hadn't been stolen from him by brutish thugs as he walked home from school three years ago. He would be a boy on the cusp of manhood, the world at his feet. Instead, he will remain 'Forever 15,' the catch cry used to mourn the Noongar Yamatji boy and rally the community against racism. Cassius's mother Mechelle Turvey, whose quiet dignity from the depths of profound grief has been an inspiration to us all, described her son's murderers as 'monsters' on Friday as Jack Brearley, 24, and Brodie Palmer, 30, were handed life sentences for their despicable crime. A third man has been found guilty of his manslaughter while Brearley's ex-girlfriend was acquitted of any involvement in Cassius's murder but sentenced for other violent crimes in the preceding days. It is the closest thing to justice our court system can deliver for Cassius. Of course, there is no justice for a crime of that magnitude. There's no making right the taking of an innocent life. But we hope that Ms Turvey can take some comfort in knowing that her son's killers have been made to answer for their crimes and will pay for it for the rest of their lives. Cassius's death changed Perth. It made us examine the soul of our city. We had to accept the hard truth that we were a place in which a young Aboriginal boy could be set upon by a group of white adults screaming racist slurs, beaten to death with a metal pole. It's not enough to accept that hard truth; we must pledge to be better. To raise our children to be the fairminded and openhearted adults of the kind Cassius was destined to be, before that destiny was stolen from him. The sentencing of his killers brings to a close one chapter of Cassius's story. But his city will never forget him.


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