William Tyrrell’s former foster mother knows where he is, NSW detective tells court
A senior detective has told a court he believes the former foster mother of missing New South Wales boy William Tyrrell knows where he is.
The woman appeared in court on Thursday, accused of lying to the NSW Crime Commission.
She cannot be named for legal reasons, but is the former foster mother of the missing boy.
The charges do not relate to William, who was three years old when he went missing from a home at Kendall on the NSW mid-north coast in 2014.
The woman is accused of lying to the commission about whether she ever struck another child in her care with a wooden spoon.
“I have formed the view [she] knows where William Tyrrell is,” Det Sgt Andrew Lonergan told Downing Centre local court.
Barrister John Stratton SC, representing the woman, said that was a false belief.
Police charged her for allegedly lying, in an attempt to pressure her, he told the court.
“You are hoping to break her spirit,” Stratton said.
“Our main objective is to find out where William Tyrrell is,” Lonergan said.
Sign up for our free morning and afternoon email newsletters from Guardian Australia for your daily news roundup Audio recording from listening devices placed in the home recorded what police allege is the woman hitting a child with a wooden spoon.
The child can be heard threatening to call the police beforehand.
A woman is then heard telling the child to “stand up” three times.
The court heard a woman on the recording say: “Where’d you put the wooden spoon?”
The child then pleads, screams and cries, and is told to turn around and move her hands before smacking sounds are heard.
In a later phone call intercepted by police, the woman is heard telling her husband: “She’s still going on about it.”
Lonergan denied in court that he and his colleague Det Sgt Scott Jamieson deliberately lied to the woman to upset her during the interview when they told her police knew where the boy’s body was.
Jamieson, who told the woman police knew where William Tyrrell’s body was and what happened to him, also denied deliberately lying about it.
“I knew the area in which I believed William was,” Jamieson told the court.
Both officers said they believed the boy was somewhere in Kendall, but they acknowledged no body had been found.
The court heard that when police asked her about hitting or kicking the other child the woman did not admit using a wooden spoon.
Police prosecutor Amin Assaad submitted that the woman had not said she couldn’t remember or was not sure whether she had hit the child with a wooden spoon, but that she said she had “never” done it.
“Unfortunately, that answer … is an outright lie,” Assaad told the court.
Stratton said she had not been given adequate information.
“No details were given, she was not given the benefit of hearing the tape played,” Stratton told the court.
He submitted it would make no sense for the woman to admit to hitting or kicking the child and then deny it.
Stratton suggested the woman was distressed during the interview and could have made an honest mistake.
Lonergan had earlier agreed with Stratton that a mistake is not the same as a lie, after the officer mistakenly gave the wrong date for the expiry date for warrants used to surveil the woman and her husband.
The court will resume on Friday.