William Tyrell: Police liaising with Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame
Police who have identified a new suspect in the hunt for the killer of William Tyrrell are liaising with Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame, who has postponed handing down her findings into his disappearance.
Police & Courts
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Police who have identified a new suspect in the hunt for the killer of William Tyrrell are liaising with Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame, who has postponed handing down her findings into his disappearance.
The coroner had signalled she would be delivering her findings in June but that was delayed amid internal conflict over who police believe was to blame, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.
Counsel assisting the coroner, Gerard Craddock SC, was to file his submissions by February after the emotionally-charged 19-month inquest into the three-year-old’s disappearance but was given until April 30.
No fresh date has yet been set for the inquest to conclude.
Among the people who the inquest heard were no longer persons of interest, convicted paedophile Frank Abbott, 79, remains in jail for sex offences while washing machine repair man Bill Spedding, who was wrongly targeted by detectives early on in the investigation, is suing the police claiming malicious prosecution of historical child abuse allegations of which he was completely cleared.
Neighbour Paul Savage, who lives opposite William’s foster grandmother’s former house in Kendall on the NSW mid-north coast, was at the centre of the case that led to the conviction of ex-Detective Gary Jubelin, who had led the investigation.
Mr Jubelin was stood down in 2019 after he was charged and then convicted of illegally recording four conversations with Mr Savage. He has since quit the force but keeps in touch with William’s foster family.
No-one has been charged with William’s disappearance from the garden of the Kendall home on September 12, 2014, in his famous Spider-Man suit. All three men named here have been cleared of any involvement.
The Daily Telegraph reported on Monday that detectives were pursuing a suspect who was previously ruled out by investigators.
“We believe we can identify who it may be or the circumstances of his disappearance,” Chief Inspector David Laidlaw, who took over Strike Force Rosann from Mr Jubelin, told Peter Stefanovic from Sky News in July.
“We have thoughts on what occurred to William, there is a range of thoughts.”
When asked if he knew who was responsible and what happened he replied: “Yes.”
William’s foster Nana — who along with his foster mum and his older sister was the last to see him alive — died in March this year aged 88. The foster family cannot be named for legal reasons.
They had looked after him since he was taken from his birth parents aged nine months because of their history of substance abuse and domestic violence.
His birth parents kept in touch and his father last saw William a month before he vanished.
The inquest which began in March 2019 heard from dozens of witnesses including a local who said she heard a boy’s sharp scream around the time William went missing and a nurse who helped treat a dying man at an aged care facility who said he had confessed about his knowledge of William’s disappearance.
Abbott, who lived in a caravan near Kendall, had watched from his prison cell as the inquest heard claims he had bragged to locals that he knew another local man had buried William.
Mr Spedding, who had quoted to fix washing machine at the foster grandmother’s house around the time William went missing, proved he was having coffee with his wife at the time.
He was later charged over allegations of child abuse from 30 years earlier which he vehemently denied. The charges were later dismissed by a Victorian court with costs awarded against the police.
The inquest was told he was now suing police.
Police said in a statement on Tuesday that officers remained finding William Tyrrell and investigations by the Homicide Squad’s Strike Force Rosann are ongoing.
“Strike force detectives are continuing to conduct interviews, searches and other investigative activity, including those under Coronial Orders, as well as reviewing all material with the assistance of various experts,” the statement said.
A $1 million reward remains for any information about William’s disappearance.
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