A landmark judgment of a $1.5 million payout in damages to a former suspect in the disappearance of NSW toddler William Tyrrell has been challenged.
In December, washing machine repairman Bill Spedding was awarded the money after being maliciously prosecuted by NSW Police as they searched for the three-year-old, who disappeared from a home in Kendall in September 2014.
NSW Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison ordered that the State of NSW pay the 71-year-old $1.48 million plus interest after he was charged with historical child sex offences by police during their search for William.
The judge found the accusations brought against Mr Spedding in 2015 were “concocted and false and could not be supported” and were made for the collateral purpose of furthering the investigation into William’s location.
“I am satisfied that the institution and maintenance of the criminal prosecution was malicious. It was borne of malice directed to Mr Spedding and unrelated to the proper pursuit of the criminal law,” Justice Harrison said.
The State of NSW is now fighting the judge’s findings in the NSW Court of Appeal. A two-day appeal hearing will take place from June 13.
Mr Spedding was an early high-profile suspect in William’s disappearance from a home on NSW’s mid-north coast.
Police searched the tradesman’s Bonny Hills home and drained his septic tank in January 2015, but found no evidence linking him to William, who has not been found.
Before being categorically ruled out in the investigations, he was charged in April 2015 over child abuse claims alleged to have taken place in the 1980s, spending 56 days in custody and then being released on strict bail conditions.
Clear evidence emerged that the complainants had been coached by another person to make the allegations and another person’s evidence undermined the case.
Mr Spedding was found not guilty in March 2018.
– AAP
