Update in William Tyrrell foster dad’s case of allegedly lying to the NSW Crime Commission

William Tyrrell’s foster father won’t face court over a charge of lying to the NSW Crime Commission until the end of the year for this reason.

The foster father of William Tyrrell will fight the allegation he lied to the NSW Crime Commission at the end of the year after the matter was pushed back until after he fights assault charges, a court has been told.

The 55-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to one charge of lying or misleading NSW Crime Commission officials and was due to face a hearing in March.

The commission was examining William’s disappearance.

Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court was on Monday told the hearing would have to be pushed back until he faced a different hearing at Parramatta Local Court.

William Tyrrell’s foster father (right) has had his hearing over a charge of lying to the NSW Crime Commission pushed back. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Magistrate Theo Tsavdaridis allowed the March hearing to be vacated.

“I confirm pleas of not guilty were previously entered,” he told the court.

New hearing dates of November 6 and 7 were confirmed, with the matter to be mentioned briefly in September.

Both foster parents will face a hearing over charges of common assault and stalk and intimidation in relation to another child who is not William in September.

Tyrrell’s foster mother was last year found not guilty of lying to the NSW Crime Commission following a hearing where police alleged she said during her evidence that she did not strike a child with a wooden spoon.

The child was not William.

William Tyrrell disappeared in September 2014 when he was just three.

But magistrate Miranda Moody said she could not find beyond a reasonable doubt that the foster mother had willingly lied to the commission.

William was three when he vanished from his foster grandmother’s house in Kendall on the NSW north coast in 2014.

Due to an extensive but ultimately unsuccessful initial search for the boy, police began operating on the belief he was kidnapped.

The case gained national attention and sparked a tireless years-long search to find him.

Police launched a renewed effort in 2022, scouring bushland around the property where he was last seen.

The foster parents (pictured together) will face a hearing over the alleged assault of another child. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Around 30 police officers spent more than a month searching scrub and waterways near Kendall, south of Port Macquarie, on the NSW mid north coast.

AFP officers also used ground penetrating radar to scan the garage of the property and in nearby bushland to detect anything out of the ordinary.

Teams searched rainwater and septic tanks at the property and police divers entered a nearby creek bed.

During the search, officers found pieces of cloth seeming to match the Spider-Man outfit William was wearing when he disappeared and even bone fragments. However, nothing was deemed to be connected to the case.

A $1m reward remains in place for information that leads to William’s recovery.