William Tyrrell inquiry: Person of interest Tony Jones described as ‘putrid dog’, ‘hooked on speed’

There’s no known link between a convicted pedophile and William Tyrrell’s disappearance, but his sons ‘wouldn’t put it past him’.

Tony Jones leaves the second day of the inquest into William Tyrrell's disappearance at Taree Local Court on Tuesday. Picture: Nathan Edwards/AAP

He has been described by one son as a “putrid dog” and by another as a lowlife who stole from his kids, but there is still no known evidence to link pedophile ­Anthony Keith Jones to the disappearance of William Tyrrell.

Giving evidence at Taree in NSW on Tuesday, Jones said he could not account for his movements on September 12, 2014 — the day William disappeared — ­because he was likely drunk.

He is one of a string of local sex offenders who have been, or will be, called to give evidence during the coronial inquest into ­William’s disappearance.

Tony Jones leaves the second day of the inquest into William Tyrrell's disappearance at Taree Local Court. Picture: AAP

Detectives have not yet ­revealed what, if any, evidence they have to link these “persons of interest” to the case.

William was three years old and in foster care when he ­vanished from Benaroon Drive in the village of Kendall. The inquiry is now asking questions of local sex offenders such as Jones.

Watching proceedings on Tuesday via video link from Cessnock prison was Jones’s former jailmate Frank Abbott, 79, a fellow child sex offender.

Both men were living close to Kendall when William went missing. They have denied any ­involvement.

In 2014, Jones was living in the village of Wauchope, about 10km from Kendall, with his wife and her three grandchildren, making a meagre living from the pension and “scrapping” for metal in local forests.

Asked about his movements on the day of William’s disappearance, Jones said: “I have no recollection, I have none whatsoever. I’ll be honest, if I wasn’t scrapping (for metal), I was probably sleeping with (ex-wife) Debbie’s friend next door.”

Duane Gardoll, right, attends the second day of the inquest into William Tyrrell's disappearance at Taree Local Court on Tuesday. Picture: AAP

Asked if he was mostly drunk in 2014, he said: “Oh, yeah, OK, I’ll go with that. But I could drink all day and it would make no ­difference.”

Asked again if he could ­remember what happened on September 12, 2014, he said: “Can you remember what you were doing in 1952? No.”

The Deputy State Coroner, ­Harriet Grahame, asked him: “So, the part about sleeping with the lady next door, you’re not saying you did?”

“I’m not saying I did. I could have,” he said. Jones told the court there was “a bloke called Mickey Blue Eyes” living nearby in 2014.

He agreed that Abbott was the father-in-law of “Mickey Blue Eyes” but said he didn’t know ­Abbott.

He agreed Abbott had tried to talk to him in Goulburn jail, but added: “No way known I was going to talk to Mr Frank Abbott.”

He also said he could not sit in a car with the windows wound up because he had a lung disease.

“I struggle to get enough oxygen­ as it is,” he said.

William’s foster mother, who cannot be named, previously told the court she saw a car with the windows down in Benaroon Drive on the morning of ­William’s ­disappearance.

The court had earlier heard from Jones’s son, Duane Gardoll, who described his father in unflattering terms.

“I want nothing to do with him,” said Mr Gardoll, who told the court he’d had very little contact with his father for the first 15 years of his life.

When he did see him, they would collect burnt-out cars, “minus wheels and all the ­interior”, from the bush.

“I done it two, maybe three times. Then I worked out he was ripping me off,” Mr Gardoll said. “He was getting big money for it, like a hundred bucks a day.”

He said he was “flipping through Facebook” following William’s disappearance and “there was a story about a little kid missing and that” and he went with his wife to his mother’s house, who asked him if he’d seen his father that day.

“I told her I hadn’t seen him all day,” he said.

He said Jones later expressed an interest in going out to search for William but instead took money set aside for petrol and used it to go “drinking long-necks” with another local sex ­offender, Paul Bickford.

Mr Gardoll said his mother “kicked Jones out of the house” a couple of weeks after ­William disappeared, because he’d been charged with a sex offence against a child. The inquest continues.