Police return to bush in search for William

Police return to bush near where William Tyrrell disappeared, in what could be a last-ditch attempt to find his remains.

Police will search bushland near missing boy William Tyrrell’s home. Picture: AAP

Police searchers have returned to the bushland near where William Tyrrell disappeared, in what appears to be a last-ditch attempt to locate the child’s remains, just ahead of what would be his ninth birthday.

The searchers were on Monday concentrating on an area of bush near Herons Creek, about 11km from William’s last known location in the nearby village of Kendall, on the NSW mid-north coast.

A known paedophile, Frank Abbott, was living in caravan, near a Herons Creek sawmill when William disappeared.

The child was three years old at the time and, if alive, would turn nine on Friday.

Abbott, 78, is now serving a jail sentence for molesting three children.

He has been watching the inquest into William’s disappearance from his jail cell, but has not yet decided whether to testify when the inquest resumes in October.

William disappeared on September 12, 2014.

The search comes just weeks after the Australian Federal Police announced that it had busted a massive child sex abuse network on the mid-north coast of NSW.

Two of the men who were arrested are from Kendall, but they are not thought to be involved in William’s disappearance.

Police allege Timothy Doyle, 26, sexually abused a child younger than 10 on two occasions and filmed it, producing child abuse material. Police also charged Steven Garrad, 21, with six counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10 and possessing child abuse material. He would have been a minor when William went missing.

The arrests came after a tip-off from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in the United States.