Reason why Perth TikTokker livestreamed threats to kill his mum revealed as he is sentenced

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Perth TikTok sensation Turan ‘Spidey’ Salis has been given a community-based order by a Perth magistrate after he was charged over making threats to decapitate his mum in a live stream video earlier this year.

Salis, who garnered half a million followers on the social media app TikTok after his sheep shearing videos evolved into travel content, was recorded making threats to decapitate his mother, University of Western Australia medical researcher Amanda Salis, who then called police out of fears for her safety.

As exclusively reported by WAtoday last month, Salis was arrested and jailed after the incident, which took place while he was riding a ferry from Elizabeth Quay to South Perth on July 14. He allegedly told viewers he was “so angry” at his mother and wanted to go home and “beat the f--- out of her”.

He was also heard saying he wanted to “stab her” and “just f---ing decapitate her”.

Salis later told police he “did it for content because I’m a content creator.”

But on Monday as he was sentenced over the threats in Perth Magistrates Court, Salis’s lawyer explained to the court that the 22-year-old was furious because his mother would not give him money to buy drugs and was at the time “in psychosis”.

Turan Salis, aka “Turan Spidey”, was arrested in July after livestreaming a video where he allegedly threatened to kill his mum.

Salis lives with autism spectrum disorder. His lawyer, Lily Thackrah, also told magistrate Dianne Scadden that her client’s content online is about “controversy”.

“The more controversial the content, the more engagement from the views. The more engagement, the more profit,” she said.

“He live streams his thoughts, feelings and emotions and describes it as an outlet for himself.”

For multiple years Salis has been earning a significant income from his social media videos.

“It’s a community that he engages in,” Thackrah said.

“It does not excuse his behaviour, I’m just explaining for context.”

Thackrah told the court Salis had been on the phone to his mother and in the “throes of psychosis” when he asked her for money and she said no on the day of the incident.

“He said it had been six months of frustration over not having autonomy over his circumstances,” she said.

“He vented and expressed his frustration.”

Salis later said he had no intention of carrying out the threats and said he and his mum are very close.

He spent four weeks in Hakea Prison after his arrest where he contracted COVID and then rheumatic fever which he was hospitalised for.

He was later made an involuntary patient for mental health reasons.

The 22-year-old rose to fame in 2021 for making sheep-shearing videos on TikTok, turning the hobby into a profitable business two years later after a video he shot in Japan went viral and attracted hundreds of thousands of followers.

Since then, he has posted regular content of himself travelling the world and Australia, with some videos receiving more than 75 million views.

But his account has been quiet since July after he was placed into Hakea Prison, sparking a series of TikTok videos from his mother talking about being “a prison mum” under the title “Turan Spidey’s Mum” which has garnered its own significant following.

After his arrest in July, the court was told Amanda Salis “felt threatened and believed the accused was capable of carrying out such threats” and was granted a restraining order in a separate court hearing to protect her from him but with the condition that she could still visit him in detention.

Amanda Salis told viewers she launched her own account to “connect” with her son, but has been accused of profiting from his success. Her account has more than 40,000 followers.