Three Men Convicted in Killing of Aboriginal Teen in Australia

A jury in Western Australia has found two men guilty of the murder of 15-year-old Aboriginal boy Cassius Turvey, whose 2022 killing sparked national outrage and widespread anti-racism protests across Australia, Al Jazeera reports.

Cassius, a student from the Noongar Nation, was walking home from school with friends in the Perth suburb of Middle Swan in October 2022 when he was brutally attacked with a metal pole. He died 10 days later in hospital after being placed in an induced coma.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Western Australia convicted Jack Brearley, 24, and Brodie Palmer, 29, of murder. A third man, Mitchell Forth, 27, was found guilty of manslaughter but acquitted of murder. A fourth person, Aleesha Gilmore, was cleared of all charges.

According to evidence presented in court, the three men exited a vehicle and chased Cassius and his friends before Brearley struck the teenager with a pole taken from a shopping trolley. Prosecutors said the assault was linked to Brearley’s anger over a recent act of vandalism against his car, although there was no evidence linking Cassius to the damage.

While some witnesses claimed that racial slurs were used during the attack, the court proceedings did not consider racism as an official motive. However, the case drew widespread condemnation, including from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who at the time called the killing racially motivated and “a terrible tragedy.”

Following the verdicts, Cassius’s mother, Mechelle Turvey, left the courtroom declaring “Justice!”, according to Australia’s national broadcaster ABC.

The case ignited a national reckoning over the treatment of Indigenous Australians, particularly young people. In the days after Cassius’s death, thousands took to the streets in cities across the country to demand justice and greater protections for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.