William Tyrrell’s foster mother has unsuccessfully applied to have charges of intimidation thrown out, with a magistrate commenting that secret police recordings played to a court this week “ultimately speak for themselves”.
The 58-year-old, who cannot be named, and her 56-year-old husband were charged after police placed listening devices in their home during the investigation into William’s disappearance. Those bugs allegedly captured them assaulting and intimidating a 10-year-old child, who is not the missing toddler.
William Tyrrell’s foster parents arrive at Parramatta Local Court this week.Credit: AAP
The foster mother pleaded guilty this week to two counts of assault for kicking the child and hitting them with a wooden spoon, but denied any intimidation. The foster father has denied both charges against him: one count of intimidation and one count of assault.
On Friday, when prosecutors closed their case following the five-day hearing, the foster mother’s barrister John Stratton SC argued his client had no case to answer because the evidence was not capable of satisfying the offences she was charged with.
Stratton said one of the incidents relied on by prosecutors was the foster mother telling the child: “You want to push me, keep going ... I’m stronger than you, I will outlast you ... I will go higher and I will go harder, your choice.”
He said those comments, “in isolation or in context”, did not constitute intimidation because there was no threat of harm or violence.
Stratton said another incident presented by prosecutors was the foster mother telling the child in May 2021 that some of their underwear was thrown out because it was “putrid”, and the child needed to “show you can actually control yourself and not act like a homeless person”.
“It may not amount to good parenting, or it may be the reaction of someone under a great deal of stress, but one thing it certainly isn’t, is a threat of injury or violence,” Stratton said.
He conceded that one comment in July 2021, where the foster mother said she would slap the child across the face if they gave her attitude, could potentially satisfy the legal elements of the offence of intimidation.
Magistrate Susan McIntyre declined to dismiss the charges, finding the foster mother had a prima facie case to answer. She said the foster mother told the child in one recording: “If I see or hear you throw something around again, that won’t be the only thing that gets thrown.”
“I can really only take the word ‘throw’ to mean a physicality,” McIntyre said.
The magistrate said the words in the recording where the foster mother said she would “outlast” the child “ultimately speak for themselves”.
Earlier on Friday, the court heard the foster parents had provided emergency and short-term care for numerous children over the years, including seven children between 2017 and 2021.
Adam McMahon, a foster care support worker with the Department of Communities and Justice, agreed that the husband and wife were considered reliable and trustworthy carers who were often called upon to help out when the department was in a jam.
McMahon said he went to the foster parents’ house in 2012 for a home visit and discovered the mother was using an “exclusionary time out” for a two-year-old child in her care, which involved placing them outside. He said this method was not endorsed by the department.
William, 3, vanished from his foster grandmother’s home at Kendall on the NSW Mid North Coast on September 12, 2014.
Despite a lengthy investigation and an inquest that began in 2019, no trace of William has ever been found and no one has been charged over his disappearance.
The hearing was adjourned to December 4. A judgment is expected to be delivered next year.
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