William Tyrrell inquest: ‘no one’s been ruled out’

The reliability of human memory has consumed what may be the second-to-last day of the William Tyrrell inquest.

None of William Tyrrell’s family members — foster or biological — has been ruled out as a possible ­person of interest in his disappearance, according to the new lead ­investigator on the case.

Detective Chief Inspector David Laidlaw, speaking on the penultimate day of the inquest into the boy’s disappearance, confirmed that “nobody has been eliminated”.

That includes neighbours on the street William disappeared from, and local pedophiles.

Mr Laidlaw’s statement contradicts that given by the former head of the investigation, Gary ­Jubelin, who repeatedly told the public that the foster parents, who had William in their care when he disappeared, had been ruled out as suspects. Mr Jubelin also ruled out the biological parents.

No evidence connects anyone to the crime, but Mr Laidlaw ­denied suggestions that police had given up. “We never will,” he said.

William was a three-year-old foster child who went missing from Kendall on the NSW mid-north coast on September 12, 2014.

His disappearance is one of Australia’s most vexing missing persons case: a lively boy in a ­Spider-Man suit, there one minute, and gone the next. The list of persons of interest includes Frank Abbott, a 78-year-old convicted sex offender who has watched this week’s evidence from his jail cell. Abbott lived near Kendall when William went missing. He is currently serving time for the molestation of three children.

The NSW Coroner’s Court has previously heard that he once boasted about getting away with murder.

Mr Jubelin had a crew of 27 ­ investigators, chasing countless leads. Mr Laidlaw said there are now just four full-time investigators working on the case, plus ­himself.

The NSW Police Force has been accused by William’s foster parents of wanting to send the matter to the “cold case” room.

Mr Laidlaw said police were in fact “still working on this matter”.

“It’s not as if we’ve closed the book on him. If information comes to the fore, of course we’ll look at it.”

He said “nobody has been eliminated” and when he was asked if that included the foster parents, the parents and others who are now suing police for being named as “persons of interest” despite there being no evidence of their involvement, he said: “Yes.”

Mr Jubelin watched his testimony from the back of the courtroom. He wanted to testify, but hasn’t been called.

Mr Laidlaw said the case was “unique” and he had “great respect” for all the effort Mr Jubelin had put in.

The disappearance of William had, he agreed, caused “the whole country to sit up and pay attention”.

Asked if he wanted more ­resources, he said: “Of course we would.”

William’s family members are likely to make statements as to the impact of the crime on their lives, during the last day of hearings on Thursday.

Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame will make findings later this year. The inquiry has been long but very little evidence has been produced: there are no forensics, no confirmed sightings, no real leads.

Nobody has been able to say with any authority what happened to William that day.

The inquiry also took testimony on Wednesday from Helen Paterson, a senior lecturer in forensic psychology and a memory expert from the University of ­Sydney, who told the court that “false memories” were common, meaning some of the clues people claimed to have seen on the day of William’s disappearance may never have been there.

She said it was possible William’s foster mother, who cannot be named, did not in fact see two strange cars in the street on the day William disappeared.

“You can believe something to be true when it’s not. That’s perfectly normal,” Dr Paterson. “Our memories are not perfect.”

She said an elderly neighbour, Ronald Chapman, who believes he saw William in the back seat of a car being driven erratically on the morning of his disappearance, may also be mistaken.

“Our memories are not like video-cameras,” she said. “We ­reconstruct things in our past.”

A $1m reward for information leading to the discovery of William’s whereabouts still stands.