Sex offender refused to answer questions about William Tyrrell

A convicted sex offender who took part in the initial search for missing boy called to testify.

SES crew search for forensic evidence relating to the disappearance of William Tyrrell. Picture: Nathan Edwards

A Taree sex offender who took part in the initial search for William Tyrrell in 2014 declined during a police interview in 2018 to answer any questions about the boy’s likely murder.

Robert Martin Donohoe, 43, who worked part-time in a local Caltex near Kendall at the time of William’s disappearance, was called yesterday to testify at the coronial inquest.

Dressed in a short sleeved, pink shirt with a black tie and belted slacks, he told the deputy state coroner, Ms Harriet Grahame, that he wanted to give his evidence slowly because he had a cognitive impairment.

He said he was a member of the Taree SES in 2014 when William went missing.

He was asked if he could remember joining other SES members in a search gang referred to as Taree 56.

“I can’t remember, I’ve been in jail, so my memory is not 100 per cent,” he said.

He did recall being contacted at around 4pm to join the search, and he remembered being briefed in the car on the way to Kendall.

He was driven to Benaroon Drive, where search teams were gathering.

“The place was like a football match, the amount of people who were there,” Mr Donohoe said.

The court was shown video of his interview with police on 13 November 2018. Mr Donohoe had a disability support worker with him. He was asked about William’s disappearance and “likely murder” but declined to answer any questions.

He has not previously been named as a person of interest, and no evidence to link him to the crime has been produced.