The court stories that shook WA in 2025

February

A few weeks later, Perth was shocked when a young woman was murdered just meters from her home as she exited an Uber outside her home.

This shock only deepened once it was revealed. The man responsible for killing her was drunken obstetrician Rhys Bellinge. He was speeding excessively at the time of the accident.

Elizabeth Pearce, 24, was killed instantly and her family said their world was shattered by her death.

Police said Bellinge, 45, was driving in an arrogant and aggressive manner and ran a red light before speeding excessively, which caused him to hit the curb, lose control of the vehicle, and crash into the rideshare vehicle on the other side of the road.

His blood alcohol level was 0.183 at the scene and he admitted to police that he had been drinking while watching a football match on television at his family’s home.

She allegedly told police in an interview that she couldn’t see while driving because of tears in her eyes.

Bellinge, whose family is believed to be “ultra-wealthy”, has been in prison since the incident on February 15 and later pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, careless driving and manslaughter.

He will be sentenced next month.

March

The death of Cassius Turvey in 2023, when he was just 15 years old, after being brutally struck with a metal pole, sparked national outrage; That’s why all eyes were on the WA Supreme Court when five men appeared in court accusing each other of administering the fatal blows.

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The trial lasted a massive 12 weeks and consisted of horrific evidence from a large group of children who spoke of normalized violence and aggression in a struggling community.

Young people wandering the streets in groups, looking for a fight to watch for fun. Boys organize confrontations to pay for their school romances that lasted for days. And a firm belief that if someone underestimates you, they have to pay violently for it.

It is a low-socioeconomic community, at times racially divided, where drugs and guns are readily available.

Two men were eventually convicted of murder and the third was charged with manslaughter.

They were sentenced in June and told they would spend at least 22, 18 and 12 years behind bars respectively for their involvement in the child’s needless death.

April

Andre Rebelo’s murder case was one of the most sensational cases of 2024; So when he was sentenced in April for the “heinous” act of murdering his own mother for her money, it wasn’t just people in Western Australia who wanted to know the outcome.

The 29-year-old showed no emotion when he was sentenced to 25 years in prison after the judge said it was a “monstrous act” and an “incomprehensible betrayal”.

Colleen Rebelo was murdered by her son at her home in Bicton in 2020.

Although he still maintains his innocence, sentencing judge Bruno Fianacca said he was driven by money.

“This was a pre-planned crime, a monstrous act that was an integral part of a fraudulent scheme to profit from life insurance,” he said.

Rebelo is the former partner of Instagram model Gracie Piscopo.

“You acted out of a sense of inadequacy, you felt like you were being submissive in your relationship,” Fianacca said.

“The evidence shows that you want to project the image of a successful investor and want to contribute to overcoming the financial difficulties you find yourself in.

“So you took out multiple life insurance policies in your mother’s name, then hatched a plan to kill her and claim those policies.”

In September, Rebelo appealed his conviction and sentence.

May

In May, a sentencing judge at Perth Children’s Court heard the events leading up to the death of 18-year-old Nick Campo, who was celebrating his birthday when he was tragically killed in a car crash in North Lakes in 2024.

The judge wanted to know whether other teenagers in the car encouraged the young driver to speed to go to a nightclub before the lockout and whether drugs were involved.

The hearing caused emotional distress to both Campo’s family and the driver’s family and friends, who flooded the hallway outside the courtroom, prompting the intervention of security.

The driver was described as a “friend of a friend” or someone Campo knew and had been invited to his birthday party at the last minute.

The private school Year 12 pupil, a keen mechanic, had modified his Toyota Hilux, meaning three seatbelts were inaccessible, airbag sensors were disabled, the front passenger seat was rear-facing and the stabilizer was removed.

A month later, he was sentenced to three years and two months in prison for the accident.

June

The actions of a drunken British backpacker in June led to the death of a beloved father and husband and helped bring much-needed attention to the safety of electric scooters on Perth’s streets.

After a day and night of binge drinking, Alicia Kemp rented one of the vehicles in Perth’s CBD and allowed an extremely drunk friend to ride along with her.

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Thanh Phan, a 51-year-old civil engineer, had been out to dinner with friends and was waiting to cross the road at the corner of King and Murray streets when Kemp rear-ended him and gave him “no warning” to prepare for the collision.

The accident caused him to spin and fall onto the road, suffering a catastrophic head injury from which he later died.

Kemp was sentenced to four years in prison for the incident, and a parliamentary inquiry into e-scooters said there was “an urgent need for reform of state regulation that cannot wait for the establishment of a national framework”.

September

In September, a Perth grandmother lost her appeal to overturn her six-year drug smuggling sentence in Japan.

Donna Nelson was arrested in January 2023 at Narita Airport, 50 kilometers west of Tokyo, after customs officials found nearly two kilograms of methamphetamine in the bag she was carrying.

Nelson claimed that she was the victim of a Nigerian scam and that her online lover “Kelly” arranged for her to bring the bag from Laos because she told him she was a fashion designer in Japan and wanted to sell the bag in one of her stores.

The Japanese judge who found him guilty of drug trafficking charges last December acknowledged that he was taken advantage of.

He was called ‘blind mule’.

Court I heard Nelson only got the bag from Kelly’s “business manager” 15 minutes before check out for flight to Japan.

There were clothing samples inside, but he didn’t notice anything strange in the box and put his belongings in the box before boarding the plane to Tokyo.

Nelson has now exhausted all attempts to appeal his sentence and will have to serve the remainder of his sentence in a Japanese prison.

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October

The trial, dubbed the “trial of the century” in October, ended as quickly as it started.

Bikie David Pye was defending claims that he paid a trained sniper and hitman to spectacularly “eliminate” rival Nick Martin at Kwinana Motorplex in December 2020.

The only evidence against him is the words of a convicted murderer; The former soldier admitted that he was the one who pulled the trigger and killed Martin with a high-powered long-range rifle from exactly 365 meters away. He claims he was paid $150,000 by Pye to do this.

The judge-only trial consisted mostly of testimony from the soldier and lasted only six days before ending.

Judge Joseph McGrath is still considering his decision on the matter.

December

Just last month former AFL superstar Marlion Pickett narrowly avoided a prison sentence after being caught up in a string of thefts allegedly committed by family members in 2022.

The 33-year-old former Richmond player was arrested in June 2023 and initially charged with 12 offenses relating to a series of commercial burglaries, some of which included ransacking safes at currency exchange offices.

But by May of this year, Pickett, who had been released on bail and allowed to continue playing for the Tigers before his retirement, negotiated what a judge on Wednesday described as the “deal of the century” in which all but two charges were dropped.

He used his Victorian driver’s license and credit card to provide the couple with a caravan to rent, which they then drove to Adelaide and then to Melbourne, where they exchanged foreign currencies for Australian dollars.

In total, nearly $300,000 was exchanged, and Pickett was paid just over $20,000 for his participation.

pickett He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months.