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Mitchell Forth, one of the men who was convicted of being involved in the killing of Swan View schoolboy Cassius Turvey, will appeal his sentence.
Forth, 27, was acquitted of murder by a Supreme Court of WA jury in May, but found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years in prison over the 15-year-old’s death in 2022.
He received a nine-year sentence for the manslaughter and a total of three years for other assaults and stealings that occurred in the days before.
Mitchell Forth captured on CCTV on the day of Cassius’ death.Credit: 9News Perth
Cassius was killed after being chased across a vacant reserve in the east Perth suburb of Middle Swan by local thugs Brodie Palmer and Jack Brearley.
It was Brearley, Chief Justice Peter Quinlan found, who delivered the fatal blows to Cassius’ head with the metal handle of a shopping trolley.
Cassius died in hospital from those injuries 10 days later.
The trio, as well as Brearley’s then-girlfriend Aleesha Gilmore, were charged with his murder but pleaded not guilty, and the matter was taken to a 12-week trial earlier this year.
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Gilmore was eventually acquitted of any involvement in Cassius’ death but found guilty of other offences in the days before.
Brearley and Palmer were sentenced to life in prison.
In documents lodged with the WA Court of Appeal this week, Forth’s legal team have stated they will appeal against his conviction and his sentence.
“The verdict of guilty on which the conviction is based should be set aside because having regard to the evidence it is unreasonable or cannot be supported,” it read.
A second document stated that his sentence of nine years solely for the manslaughter charge was “manifestly excessive given his personal circumstances and the circumstances of his offending”.
Throughout the trial, Forth maintained that he was not part of the group that chased Cassius and other indigenous teens across the reserve, but prosecutors said he could still be convicted of murder or manslaughter because he was with them at the time.
