Nowhere Child inquest delayed to assist William’s biological parents

A coronial inquest into the disappearance of William Tyrrell will be expanded to ­accommodate his biological family.

Missing child William Tyrrell. Picture: AAP

A coronial inquest into the dis­appearance of three-year-old foster child William Tyrrell will be delayed but also expanded to ­accommodate his biological family, after they managed to secure a lawyer — a development revealed in The Australian’s new podcast, Nowhere Child.

The inquest, which sat for a week in March, had been scheduled to resume next Monday but has been delayed until August 7, with extra sitting days in the NSW mid-north coast town of Taree added to the schedule, apparently to allow for the questioning of child sex offenders who live in the area.

The family told The Australian in an interview for Nowhere Child that they’d been advised not to bother with a lawyer “because we weren’t there when he went ­missing”.

“We didn’t know that we wouldn’t be able to ask any questions,” William’s nana told The Australian.

“We didn’t know that my son — William’s father — would be cross-examined without one.”

Legal Aid NSW offered to fund a lawyer, after being advised that the family didn’t have one and couldn’t afford one.

The delay to the inquiry comes as the former head of the police investigation, Gary Jubelin, prepares to face court today on charges related to his handling of the case.

Mr Jubelin’s 30-year career, in which he won support from homicide victims and the ire of some colleagues, came to an end over the Tyrrell matter.

The investigation into William’s disappearance from the village of Kendall has been beset by allegations of misconduct and miscalculation.

Mr Jubelin has been charged with breaches of the Surveillance Devices Act, apparently for recording conversations with Paul Savage, who lives on the street from which William went missing, without a warrant.

He is fighting the charges, and has engaged the services of former crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen SC.

Nowhere Child is examining all aspects of William’s disappearance, including the decision to hide from the public, for more than two years, the fact he was a foster child.

The NSW Department of Family and Community Services has received criticism for failing to keep the public informed about his disappearance when police needed public sympathy and assistance to help find him.

The investigation into his disappearance has been plagued by turf wars and ego-driven disputes, with detectives from homicide in Sydney clashing with local police from Kendall and nearby Port Macquarie.

Police have accused each other of messing up the initial search and losing evidence in the process; or of being obsessed with some persons of interest while ignoring other, more obvious leads.

NSW police committed more and greater resources to the ­Tyrrell investigation than to any other in recent history. At one point, 26 detectives were working on the case, with hundreds more chasing leads around the country. At the same time, 600 names were on the list of persons of interest.

Former NSW police minister Troy Grant took a personal interest in the case. He has since retired, as has Mike Baird, who was premier when a million-dollar reward for information was offered.

That reward is uncollected, and no trace of William has been found.

The case generated enormous attention in part because of the rarity: children do not, as a rule, go missing, never to be seen again.

William’s foster mother has told police she took her eye off him for a just a few minutes on the morning of September 14, 2014.

She said he ran around the corner of her mother’s house on ­Benaroon Drive. He was roaring like a tiger, and then he was gone.

His foster father had left the house about an hour earlier to make a Skype call from the nearby town of Lakewood, where internet reception was better.

Mr Jubelin ruled the foster parents out as suspects more than two years ago. Police believe William was the victim of a random child-snatch and they have interviewed more than 100 sex offenders in relation to his disappearance.

William’s sister, known as Lindsay in court documents, remains in the care of the foster parents. She was four when her younger brother went missing.

If William is alive, he would be eight.