William Tyrrell’s biological parents give evidence at inquest into his disappearance

The birth father of William Tyrrell has spoken publicly for the first time about the disappearance of his son. And revealed who he blames.

William Tyrrell’s biological father had a “feeling” on the morning before his son vanished 350km away that “something doesn’t feel right”.

The boy’s birth father had been living in the western Sydney suburb of Granville and his son was in the care of foster parents and had been taken on a visit to the Mid North coast town of Kendall.

The 33-year-old father told the inquest into his son’s disappearance that he had woken early on September 12, 2014 and had felt sick and didn’t want to go to work.

“I do remember having that feeling, sensing something was wrong.

“[It’s] making me sound crazy.”

The court heard that around 5am on the day, the man’s mother had received a phone call from him.

Her son had told her “something doesn’t feel right”.

The birth father and the birth mother, who were then still together with another young male child and expecting a further child very soon.

But they remained unaware for hours on the day of the drama unfolding in Kendall, as their son was reported missing and a dramatic search for the three-year-old began.

It wasn’t until about 4pm when police knocked on the couple’s door and asked if they had William with them.

At first the police thought the young male child with the couple was William, but instead it was his younger brother.

After being told that his son William was missing, the father said “he’s f***ing what?”

The birth father told the inquest he blamed welfare authorities for his disppearance, saying “they f***ed up” in dramatic evidence by both the missing toddler’s biological parents.

He recalled he was smoking a cigarette in the back yard when police hammered on the door and told his then partner that William was missing.

“They f***ed up. The minister has a duty of care to keep him safe until 18.”

He told court on the morning William went missing he had gone to McDonald’s for several hours and was “incoherent”.

But he said, “I do remember having that feeling, sensing something was wrong in that period ... making me sound crazy.”

He said since the disappearance, “I broke down, I lost it” and that he blamed authorities for William’s alleged abduction.

The biological father of William Tyrrell arrives at the inquest. Picture: Toby Zerna

WILLIAM’S BIOLOGICAL GRANDMOTHER SPEAKS

William Tyrrell's’s biological grandmother says the inquest has achieved nothing and that it has treated the boy’s foster parents more favourably than his birth parents.

Speaking outside the inquest, the birth grandmother said her son was “very upset” over William’s continued disappearance and this had contributed to his being jailed five times in the years since.

She said questions asked of her son and William’s birth mother had been “full on” and that the foster parents had been treated more gently in the witness box.

She said her son would “never give up” on finding what had happened to William.

BIRTH MOTHER BREAKS DOWN IN WITNESS BOX

William’s birth mother has also described how police knocked on her door the day William disappeared and how she thought her other son was the missing toddler.

In dramatic testimony, the 30-year-old ridiculed court orders suppressing publication of her name.

“They all know our names. What’s the big deal?” she said.

Wearing a black trouser suit, cream stilettos and a cream and black striped shirt, with her hair drawn into a bun, the boy’s biological mother appeared for the first time at the inquest into her missing son.

She described how she and William’s father had taken the boy away on the day Family and Community Services welfare workers were due to take him off into foster care.

She agreed with counsel assisting the inquest, Tracey Stephens, that she and the birth father had “absconded” with William for five to six weeks in February 2012.

But she said she had no plans to leave Sydney with him.

“We weren’t really thinking ahead,” she said, weeping and wiping her face with tissues as she sat in the witness box.

She said after FACS workers eventually located the couple and took William away, she had met the foster mother who the boy was placed with.

She knew their surname and “roughly” where they lived “but not the address”.

She said when she learned that the foster couple were trying to adopt her child she had been “not happy”.

But then on the afternoon of September 12, 2014, when she was “heavily pregnant” and caring for another young son the police came knocking about William’s disappearance.

“Two police officers knocked on the door,” she said.

“They asked if William was there. They looked around and saw our son.

“They thought he was William. He wasn’t.”

She said William’s father had become “very upset and angry” learning the boy was missing.

The court heard the birth mother’s statement to police made after the disappearance, saying she “definitely didn’t take William”.

“If I took him, I would be gone and take [William’s sister] as well.”

After taking the stand, William’s birth father also took sole responsibility for abducting William in February 2012.

William hasn’t been seen since he went missing in 2012. Picture: AAP Image/NSW Police

“It was me who took William, I was the culprit for that,” he said.

He told the court that he had not had a normal life since the abduction and that on the day in question he had been sick of dealing with welfare authorities over his son.

“I feel sick of all this stuff that was going on in my life, dealing with DOCS and authorities.”

Sitting in the front row of the court were William’s foster parents and their supporters listening to the birth parents’ testimony at Lidcombe Coroner’s Court in western Sydney.

This morning two local police senior constables gave evidence that two “odd” or “different” men who were in the street from which William disappeared had been cleared and their properties searched.

The inquest is being held into the disappearance of William, then three years old, from the NSW Mid North Coast town of Kendall on September 12, 2014.

No trace of the toddler, who was last sighted at his foster grandmother’s house on Benaroon Drive, Kendall, has since been found.

After a week of hearings, the William Tyrrell inquest will resume in August.