Amid petty police politics, William Tyrrell is still missing

By now, we have a right to expect that the person that kidnapped William Tyrell would have been caught. Instead, we’re forced to watch ugly public feuding and the loss of a good cop from those in charge, writes Claire Harvey.

Where is William?

Why hasn’t his killer been caught?

And why, oh why, would NSW Police effectively end the career of a talented detective with a proven record and then compound the PR disaster by charging him with something police officers do all the time?

I carry no brief for Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin, the policeman who was in charge of the search for missing boy William Tyrrell until he was pulled off the case earlier this year.

I don’t know whether he’s guilty of the four breaches of the Surveillance Devices Act with which he has been charged, or not.

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But I do think NSW Police would be wiser to focus on finding whoever killed William, rather than engaging in yet another round of ugly public feuding.

Because the people of NSW, I think, have a right to expect that someone who kidnapped and, presumably, killed a three-year-old boy would have been caught by now.

Detector Inspector Gary Jubelin has resigned from the NSW police. Picture: Peter Lorimer

There’s a reason Gary Jubelin is beloved by the families of murder victims.

The Bowraville families — whose Aboriginal children were murdered by a serial killer — love him because he has relentlessly pushed for legislative changes to try to get justice.

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The family of Matthew Leveson love him because he initiated a coronial inquest that yielded an effective confession from Matthew’s ex-boyfriend, who then led police to Matthew’s body.

And now he’s facing criminal charges — not for being corrupt or bashing a suspect — but for making a recording on his mobile phone without first seeking a warrant, as part of his effort to catch a murderous paedophile.

Through all of the internal politics, William Tyrell is still missing. Picture: AAP/NSW Police

In 25 years in journalism, I have never come across an organisation as deeply riven by politics and disunity as the NSW Police. And that includes the Australian Labor Party, by the way.

The cops here in NSW are, I think, one of the world’s great police forces, with thousands of exceptionally brave officers, who don’t earn nearly enough, doing incredible work to keep us safe every single day.

But for all the collegiality and fellow-feeling they show, it might as well be the Year 12 common room of a private girls’ school.

Or the Rum Corps — which is, I guess, the spiritual ancestor of today’s police force.

In the brawling over the force’s future following Andrew Scipione’s ­retirement as commissioner, I think we lost two potentially brilliant leaders: Cath Burn and Nick Kaldas.

And now we’re seeing a highly experienced homicide detective leaving the police force in the middle of his biggest-ever investigation under the cloud of an offence that seems trivial to say the least.

And William Tyrrell is still missing.

Claire Harvey is the deputy editor of the Sunday Telegraph.