William Tyrrell’s foster mother pleads guilty to assaulting child

William Tyrrell’s foster mother has pleaded guilty to two assaults on a child who is not the missing toddler, including a kick to the thigh, but will fight claims she intimidated the same child, a court has heard.

The 58-year-old woman, who cannot be named, and her 56-year-old husband were charged by police after listening devices were placed in their home during the investigation into William’s disappearance, allegedly capturing both parents assaulting and intimidating the child.

The foster parents of William Tyrrell pictured leaving court in August.Credit: AAP

On Monday, the woman’s barrister, John Stratton, SC, entered guilty pleas on his client’s behalf to two counts of common assault. He said one of the incidents involved a kick to the thigh.

The court previously heard the incidents, in 2021, also involved the woman hitting the child with a wooden spoon. Stratton said his client will be fighting two charges of intimidation of the child, said to have occurred between January and August 2021.

Phillip English, appearing for the foster father, said his client will be fighting all charges against him: one count of common assault and one count of intimidation. All charges will be heard in a five-day hearing at Parramatta Local Court.

Prosecutor John Marsh argued on Monday that the court can have regard to “a pattern of violence” by the foster mother, handing the magistrate a document setting out this alleged tendency.

Stratton said one of the items on the document was a conversation in May 2021 where his client warned the child that “if [they] continue [their] behaviour, the defendant will slap [them]” .

He said if a threat by a parent to smack their misbehaving child was a crime, it would criminalise “maybe every household in Australia”.

“In the absence of any context, the Crown could not exclude the defence of lawful chastisement,” Stratton said.

The prosecutor responded that the foster parents’ home was “certainly not like every other household in Australia” because “[the child] was a child in care”.

Stratton said other items on the document included an observation by his client in May 2021 that the child only seemed to listen when threatened, with the mother lamenting: “It shouldn’t have to get to the point where I threaten you, that’s a problem.”

Other matters put forward by prosecutors to demonstrate the claimed violent tendency included an argument between the woman and the child about the child using a phone without permission.

In another interaction, in September 2021, a “smack, smack, smack” sound was heard on the recording, the court was told. Stratton said it is “not clear what that noise is caused by, whether it’s someone striking a desk or the wall”.

The prosecutor conceded that the transcript “just describes the sounds” and it was unclear what was hit.

Stratton said another matter put forward by prosecutors was his client telling the child that she would speak to someone about “in effect, ending the child’s custody with her”.

He said this occurred after the husband and wife took on another foster child, and a conflict arose because the child believed they were “no longer the centre of the attention, because the attention was going towards this other child”.

Stratton said a comment that the child could be removed from the family’s care, in the context of “household disharmony”, was not violence or a threat of violence. He said none of the matters put forward by the Crown should be permitted as tendency evidence in the case.

Magistrate Susan McIntyre allowed the tendency material to be admitted, noting it was “similar” to the content of the allegations against the foster mother.

She also noted that, in a separate case, the foster parents had indicated guilty pleas to a regulatory offence, for asking a man to make fake bids at the auction of their $4.1 million home in 2020 in an attempt to increase the sale price.

McIntyre said it may be best to allocate that matter to a different magistrate for sentencing.

William, 3, vanished from his foster grandmother’s home in the NSW Mid North Coast town of Kendall on September 12, 2014.

Despite a lengthy investigation by Strike Force Rosann and an inquest that began in 2019, no trace of William has ever been found and no one has been charged over his disappearance.

In June, police recommended that prosecutors lay criminal charges against the foster mother, alleging she covered up William’s accidental death. However, the woman’s solicitor said her client maintains “she has nothing to do with William’s disappearance”.

The hearing continues.

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