Former detective Gary Jubelin attends William Tyrrell inquest

Gary Jubelin, who has been charged with allegedly recording someone in the search for missing boy William Tyrrell, today sat at the back of the hearing on the same side of the room as detectives now leading the case.

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Charged former detective Gary Jubelin arrived at an inquest into the disappearance of William Tyrrell, an investigation from which he was sidelined just months ago.

The second tranche of hearings into William’s disappearance on September 12, 2014, began before Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame on Wednesday — it will be a mammoth four weeks of hearings, including one week in Taree Court House from August 19.

Former detective Gary Jubelin arrives at the inquest. Picture: John Grainger

Jubelin, who has been charged with four counts of breaching the Surveillance Devices Act for allegedly recording someone in the search for William, sat at the back of the Lidcombe hearing on the same side of the room as detectives now leading the case.

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Counsel assisting the coroner, Gerard Craddock SC, opened the hearing saying evidence heard in March about the early search for William supported the idea he had been taken in a car. “Even if William had been moving quickly, it is not realistic to think he may have kept ahead of police,” Mr Craddock said.

William Tyrrell went missing in September 2014.

He said the evidence suggested “William was taken from Benaroon Drive … and removed from the vicinity, in all likelihood in a car”.

Mr Craddock told the inquest research out of the US showed 97 per cent of child abduction murders were by family members or acquaintances of the child.

“There are very few family members or acquaintances who had access to William (that day),” he said.

“If William was murdered, and that’s a big if, then it may be one of those rare three per cent of cases.”

Mr Craddock also stressed there was no assumption of guilt on anyone just because they were called to give evidence before the inquest in coming days and weeks.

“This is an inquest and not a criminal trial,” he said.

“If there was such a belief, which could only be based on evidence, then the matter would likely be before the criminal court.”

Gary Jubelin has been charged with four counts of breaching the Surveillance Devices Act. Picture: John Grainger

There are 52 names on the list of witnesses expected to be called to give evidence by Mr Craddock including Benaroon Drive neighbour Paul Savage, washing machine repairman William Spedding and convicted paedophile Anthony Jones.
The first tranche of hearings over a week in March heard extraordinary evidence from both William’s biological parents, as well as his foster parents he was with when he vanished from the Mid North Coast town of Kendall on September 12, 2014.

William’s foster mother described the final moments playing with his sister on the back patio of her mother’s home of 20 years before William, wearing the now infamous Spider-Man suit, ran around the corner of the building and vanished.

In the heart-rending first moments of her search she thought she heard his shrill scream.

“It was like a scream. Like when a child hurts themselves unexpectedly,” she said.

“It was quick, it was high pitched, and it was sharp.

“I got into the bush and I thought ‘I can’t see any red’. I thought ‘maybe I imagined it, maybe it was a bird’.”

William’s biological father lampooned the state’s role in his son’s disappearance.

“They f***ed up,” he told the inquest.

“It was the Minister’s duty of care of keep William safe until he was 18. That was not the case at all.”

Missing boy William Tyrrell.

William’s foster father told the inquest he left the home that morning to make a conference call and returned to find William missing.

He said his wife asked in a panic “Is William with you?” to which he replied “No, why would he be with me”.

He said he “very quickly” began searching up the sloping Benaroon Drive.

“I was considering where he might well go … paths of least resistance,” he said.

He said he searched “everything, pits, sheds, garages … If I could have got access to it I would have searched it”.

The inquest also heard William’s biological parents went on the run with William for six weeks after a 2012 court ruling he be handed over to Family and Community Services.