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Like so many around the country, every time I read about William Tyrrell, my heart breaks. It’s hard to believe the little boy in the Spider-Man suit, for whom the nation has never given up hope of getting justice, has been missing for an entire decade. William would be 13 now – a teenager – but instead his disappearance remains a mystery, one that has left everyone who knew him, and those in the small town of Kendall, NSW, in despair. This week, and ahead of the coronial inquest resuming in November, we join locals and those campaigning for his case to be solved, in reminding Australia not to forget about William. Erin Holohan Editorial Director…
WILLIAM TYRRELL 10 YEARS ON Alice Collins, who headed up the “Where’s William?” campaign, can still remember the first time she saw pictures of the sweet little boy in a Spider-Man suit. It was mid-September in 2014 and she was turning off her phone ahead of a flight to London when she saw images of the missing toddler across her social media feed. Hoping there would be good news by the time she turned it back on, like so many other Australians she was heartbroken when it became clear over the coming days and weeks that William’s shock disappearance wouldn’t be quickly resolved. Ten days later the Sydney executive, who runs a public relations company with her mother Clare, was contacted by a former colleague, who explained that she was…
The past few years have been a tumultuous time for both William’s foster and biological families. The foster parents have been in and out of court due to matters unrelated to William’s disappearance, including being found guilty of intimidating a child. Last year police submitted a brief of evidence to the DPP to seek advice on whether there was enough evidence to charge his former foster mother in matters related to William, including perverting the course of justice and interfering with a corpse. The suggestion that she covered up William’s accidental death and dumped him in bushland has been strongly denied by her lawyer. William’s biological family’s identities were originally suppressed. His mum faced court in 2022 when she was charged with stalking, sharing an intimate photo and harassment and…
Gary Jubelin was one of the most experienced investigators in the NSW Police Homicide Squad when he headed up the team searching for William, named Strike Force Rosann. Under him, investigators looked at the possibility of William being the victim of a local paedophile ring, a grandparents’ support group and targeted many other suspects. But in 2019 Gary quit the force when he was charged with illegally recording conversations during the investigation. He was found to have acted unlawfully a year later. Now a podcast host, Gary says his commitment to solve the case “did not end when I left the police”. He has recently raised concerns about how the investigation is now being handled. Detective Chief Inspector David Laidlaw took over as lead investigator in 2019 and it is…
William’s biological mum told the coroner five years ago that police also appeared on her doorstep the day her son disappeared asking if she had him. She explained she “didn’t take him”. One of the first persons of interest named in the investigation was Bill Spedding. A washing machine repairman, he was at the foster grandmother’s home to fix her appliance three days before William’s disappearance. He was awarded $1.5 million after he sued NSW Police in August 2023 for malicious prosecution in relation to unproven historic child sex allegations from 1987. The charges were thrown out by a judge in 2018. It was found the allegations had been falsified in order to put pressure on him regarding the William investigation. Hundreds of other persons of interest were interviewed and…
WILLIAM TYRRELL 10 YEARS ON The coronial inquest into William’s disappearance is expected to resume before Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame in November and December. A witness list and list of issues will soon be finalised. Her verdict will take time, however, and will likely be heard at a later date. The inquest began in March 2019, was adjourned in 2020 due to Covid lockdowns and then delayed when the police began investigating the foster parents and undertook new searches in Kendall. Last year the coroner was handed a letter from the DPP, outlining how advice from prosecutors regarding possible charges would be given to NSW police. However, no charges have been laid against anyone as yet.…
