William Tyrrell’s neighbour recorded telling dead wife: ‘Don’t tell anyone, love’
A man investigated over the abduction of toddler William Tyrrell was recorded telling his dead wife “make sure you don’t tell anyone love, they are right after me”, a hearing into the legality of the recordings by then-investigator Gary Jubelin (pictured) has heard.
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An elderly man vigorously investigated over the abduction of William Tyrrell was overheard telling his dead wife “make sure you don’t tell anyone love, they are right after me”.
Widower Paul Savage was pinned as a key person of interest in the 2014 disappearance of three-year-old William, who vanished from his foster grandmother’s home in the tiny town of Kendall on the NSW Mid North Coast.
A covert operation and an array of listening devices were used to gather information about Savage, who lived across the road from William’s foster grandmother’s home on Benaroon Drive.
He has always denied any involvement in William’s disappearance.
The fruits of that investigation have been detailed during a local court hearing involving the case’s former boss, retired Detective Chief Inspector Gary Jubelin.
Jubelin, who quit the cops after being sidelined from the Tyrrell investigation last year, is charged with four counts of illegally recording conversations with Savage.
The veteran detective has pleaded not guilty and argues he had a lawful interest to make the recordings.
The court heard on Thursday that listening devices were placed in Savage’s home in 2017.
By that stage police were aware that Savage had previously harassed the local post woman, who had an AVO against him, and had been a “pest” to William’s foster grandmother.
Giving evidence in court on Thursday, Detective Sergeant Laura Beacroft, who worked on the strike force for more than two years, said Savage was no longer an active person of interest but could not be ruled out.
“There was nothing concrete that could put Savage in or out, which was very difficult,” she said.
Savage was interviewed by Mr Jubelin and Ms Beacroft in August 2017 but strenuously denied having anything to do with William’s abduction.
After that interview, the court heard, a listening device captured him talking to his wife, who had died two years earlier.
“Make sure you don’t tell anyone love,” Savage said, according to a transcript read out in court by defence barrister Margaret Cunneen SC.
“They are right after me. Don’t tell anyone love please, they are right after me, sorry.”
In a covert police strategy, detectives in July 2017 placed a Spiderman suit on a bush track that Savage walked on every day.
Surveillance police hid with cameras to capture how the now-75-year-old would react.
Savage reported finding the suit to police but Jubelin later accused him of seeing it a day earlier but stalling the report.
Two days later — on July 29, 2017 — a listening device inside Savage’s home captured him muttering to himself.
“You’re in my place, you do what I want,” Savage said. “You’re a little boy, you’re nobody, you’re just a little boy you don’t tell me, I tell you.”
The hearing continues.