Cassius Turvey murder trial: Teen caught up in love triangle testifies she saw boy in car ‘covered in blood’

A teenage girl caught up in a love triangle that allegedly sparked events leading to the fatal attack on Cassius Turvey saw a boy covered in blood in the back of a car driven by one of his accused killers days before the savage assault, a court has been told. WA’s Supreme Court has been told five days before the Indigenous boy was struck on the head with a metal pole, two other teenage boys were detained and assaulted by some of those accused of murdering Cassius. What led to that event was a spat between the younger brother of Aleesha Gilmore and another boy over the girl they both dated within days of each other in early October 2022, the court was told. Ms Gilmore, her boyfriend Jack Brearley, Mitchell Forth and Brodie Palmer are all on trial accused of murdering 15-year-old Cassius, who died 10 days after being hit on the head with a metal pole after being chased into bushland in Middle Swan. Ms Gilmore, Mr Forth and Mr Brearley — along another man, Ethan MacKenzie — are also accused of detaining and assaulting two teenage boys days before the attack on Cassius. In her evidence, the girl told the court she had begun dating Ms Gilmore’s younger brother Cody two days after her relationship with another boy ended. She said one of her friends got a message from that boy saying he wanted to fight Cody. After hanging out at a friend’s house, she said their group went looking for the boy who had threatened Cody and saw him with his mates. She said Cody “started running the other way” and she returned to her friend’s house before making her way to the bus stop with two other girls. A car then pulled up beside the group and “a guy got out asking us where all the boys went”. When asked who was in the car, she told the court she saw Cody, his sister Ms Gilmore, Mr Brearley and another boy. She then told the court Mr Brearley got out of the car in the middle of the road and screamed at them. “He just said, ‘Where did them boys go?’,” she said. “He then said, ‘You better not be lying to us.’ “He was pretty mad. He was just angry talking.” The girl said the group then drove away, but she saw them again a short while later in Jane Brook at another bus stop and that Ms Gilmore asked them if they were OK. She said she then saw two other boys in the back of the car and that one “had blood over all them”. However, the girl’s friend testified that it was Mr Forth who got out of the car and was angry. “He said to us if we were lying he was going to smash our head in,” she said in her evidence. “He was pretty angry.” The friend also testified when she saw the car again later in Jane Brook she saw a boy whose “hands had blood all over them”. The trial continues.