A woman found not guilty of murdering Perth school boy Cassius Turvey has avoided being sent to jail for driving without a licence.
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains an image of a person who has died, used with the permission of their family.
Cassius Turvey was chased down and beaten with a metal pole while walking with friends after school in Perth’s east in October 2022. He died in hospital ten days later.
Aleesha Gilmore stood trial for the 15-year-old’s murder along with three other men. She was found not guilty, but was convicted of assaulting a teenager and unlawfully detaining two others in the days before the attack.
Court sketch shows Aleesha Gilmore, in a blue jacket, at the sentencing trial for the murder of Cassius Turvey. (Supplied: Anne Barnetson)
She was handed a 15-month prison sentence for those offences in June 2025, suspended for two years with strict community conditions.
On Monday, Gilmore appeared before the Supreme Court via video link from a secure location for driving without a licence, an alleged breach of her conditional suspended imprisonment order.
Opportunity for rehabilitation
State prosecutor Benjamin Stanwix told the court Gilmore lost her licence in December 2025 after police found she was driving under the influence of alcohol.
The court was told Gilmore blew over 0.08 — with a blood test showing her alcohol level at 0.098.
She was fined and disqualified from holding a licence for seven months at the time, but was convicted in June of driving without a licence and given a further nine-month disqualification.
Warren Pearce says the court ruling went against the intentions of the Act. (ABC News: Briana Shepherd)
Mr Stanwix told the court even though driving without a licence breaches the terms of a suspended sentence, the state was not asking for an immediate term of imprisonment as that would not give Gilmore the opportunity for rehabilitation.
He said the state did not take that position lightly and told the court he did not want Gilmore to leave with the impression the state was “a soft touch”.
Gilmore’s lawyer, Simon Freitag, said Gilmore had been following the terms of her suspended sentence, which include attending counselling and taking part in programs.
Mr Freitag said his client had managed to get some cleaning work until they asked for a police check, and was now actively looking for FIFO work.
Cassius Turvey grew from shy boy into a leader
No immediate imprisonment
Chief Justice Peter Quinlan said he was satisfied it would be unjust to order a term of immediate imprisonment, considering Gilmore was half way through her suspended sentence, but that she needed to stay on the “straight and narrow”.
He told Gilmore she was not responsible for the death of Cassius Turvey but said her notoriety meant her name would probably always be associated with that.
“I appreciate given your notoriety it makes it more difficult for you to obtain work,” he told Gilmore.
“But that’s not a reason to give up.”
Gilmore was fined $500, to be paid on top of the $1,000 she was already fined for driving without a licence.