William Tyrrell foster parents granted adjournment in assault case

William Tyrrell’s foster parents, who cannot be named, will enter a plea on December 7 after being accused of assaulting a child.

William Tyrrel. Picture: Police Media

William Tyrrell’s foster parents will enter a plea to assault charges against them on December 7.

The couple, who cannot be named, on Tuesday afternoon applied for, and were granted, a two-week adjournment in the case, in which they are charged with assaulting a child.

The child cannot be identified; nor can the foster parents.

The adjournment was granted before a mid-size crowd comprising police, journalists, legal practitioners, foster care activists and amateur sleuths at the brown brick Hornsby courthouse on Sydney’s Pacific Highway.

News crews had camped out with satellite trucks, as public interest in the case soars. But the couple themselves did not appear.

Prosecutor Senior Sergeant Amin Assaad represented the Crown; solicitor Justeen Dormer was there for the foster parents.

The Department of Community Services and Justice, who took William into care and placed him with foster carers when he was nine months old, was represented.

Separately, so was the media.

Multiple suppression orders in various courts now prevent the media from disclosing key details about the case.

Tuesday’s court action came amidst a new and vigorous search for William, in the gardens around the house where he was last seen in the village of Kendall on the mid-north coast of NSW.

Police teams are also searching in soil near Batar Creek Road, about a kilometre from the house.

They have removed tonnes of dirt and debris and taken it to a secure location for forensic testing.

William’s foster parents emphatically deny any involvement in his disappearance.

His foster Mum says William was playing in the garden around the house at around 10:20 a.m., on the morning of 12 September 2014 when he disappeared from her line of sight.

When she went to look for him, she said, he was gone.

William was three years and three months old when he went missing.

His foster dad was away from the house at the time, making a business Skype call from nearby Lakewood, which has better internet reception.

The house was owned by William’s foster Nana – his foster Mum’s mum – who died in March.

Police have interrogated several “persons of interest” over the years, and conducted several high-profile raids on people’s property, and searches of the bushland.

The first Sydney detective on the case, the now retired Hans Rupp, zeroed in on a local washing machine man, Bill Spedding, who would later sue police, saying his life was ruined when he became a suspect.

A second detective, the high-profile Gary Jubelin, focused on a neighbour, Paul Savage, who says he only ever helped in the search for William. Jubelin was later found guilty of making illegal recordings of his conversation with Savage.

He quit the NSW police force, and was fined $10,000.

NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller has told journalists the new search is based on “credible information.”