The coroner overseeing the inquest into William Tyrrell’s disappearance in 2014 has issued a warning after the toddler’s foster mother was abused outside court.
Counsel assisting Gerard Craddock SC told the deputy state coroner Harriet Grahame that someone had yelled at the foster mother at Lidcombe coroners court on Monday as the inquest resumed for further weeks of evidence.
Craddock said on Tuesday someone had “mentioned her name” as she was leaving court the previous day. He noted there was “no place for that in civil society”.
“Fairness is deserved by all who come here for whatever reason,” Craddock said.
“That sort of conduct is something that could, if established, amount to a punishable contempt of court.”
Grahame said such behaviour would not be tolerated. “I do issue a stern warning, please behave in an appropriate manner,” the coroner said.
The foster mother cannot be identified due to a non-publication order. Any breach of that order could represent contempt of court.
The inquest is this week hearing evidence about a 2021 police search for William at Kendall and a police theory the foster mother disposed of the three-year-old’s body after his accidental death.
The foster mother has always denied having anything to do with William’s disappearance.
Craddock on Monday opened the fifth round of the inquest by stating police now believed the boy’s foster mother found him deceased after a fall from the balcony of the grandmother’s Kendall property.
Police suspect the foster mother might have then loaded his body into her mother’s Mazda, the court has heard.
Detectives believe she then alerted a neighbour to William’s disappearance before driving down the road to dispose of his remains in some undergrowth. It was only then that she called triple zero, according to investigators’ theory.
Dr Jennifer Menzies, an expert in forensic anthropology, told the coroners court on Tuesday she couldn’t be sure whether William’s bones would have been preserved if they were in the search area.
Menzies had been asked about the degradation of juvenile bones by investigating police. She said in court that juvenile bones decomposed faster than adult bones.
Menzies said whether human bones deteriorated or remained intact depended on various factors including the soil’s acidity, the air temperature, scavenger activity and the density of the remains.
“I cannot state with certainty whether his remains are likely to be preserved or otherwise,” she said. “I have not visited the site of deposition.”
William went missing while playing at his foster grandmother’s home on the mid-north coast of New South Wales on 12 September 2014.
No trace of the toddler has been found despite intense searches. The decade-long investigation has involved hundreds of persons of interest but no one has ever been charged. A $1m reward for information stands.
Sgt Robyn Ross, the only data analyst on the strike force Rosann team over the past four years, told the court on Tuesday that by August 2024 there were over 1,700 persons of interest in the case. Of those, 732 were deemed low risk, while there were 79 outstanding names requiring analysis.
Given the volume of names, Ross said the team used government data to eliminate people without cars registered in their names and those without a licence.
The court heard on Tuesday that the initial search in September 2014 included dog handlers looking for a decomposing body.
Snr Const Adam Aitken said the cadaver dog Digger was used for days during the initial search across a number of private properties. Aitken said the initial search did not cover the area examined intensively in 2021.
Snr Const Matthew Gates, from the NSW police dog unit, was involved in the searches that immediately followed William’s disappearance. He was certain a three-year-old could not have gone far on his own.
He said it was “extremely difficult” to navigate the bushland surrounding the foster grandmother’s home and, on many occasions, his dog could not get through the scrub.
Snr Const Jost Preis told the court on Tuesday he used data from GPS trackers worn by police and others during a 2018 search and the 2021 search to create a colour-coded map of the entire search area.
The inquest into William’s disappearance started in March 2019 and was adjourned in October 2020.
In looking for William, police followed through on tip-offs from prison inmates and clairvoyants claiming to have information.
One lead involved a car that was heard doing a U-turn in the street outside the foster grandmother’s home about the time of the disappearance, Craddock said on Monday.
But police had been unable to verify that information or track down the vehicle. The inquest continues.
