A man formerly considered a ‘person of interest’ in the enduring mystery of missing three-year-old William Tyrrell had a shrine-like collage of media images from the case at the foot of his bed, a podcast has revealed.
The unnamed man, who lives a few hundred metres from where Willman went missing at his foster grandmother’s home in Kendall on the NSW mid north coast, also displayed handwritten poetry and a quote from lead detective Gary Jubelin.
Mr Jubelin, who placed the man under surveillance and had his property searched, was quoted as saying the investigation would leave ‘no stone unturned’.
The man, who police ceased investigating in 2019, has spoken to podcast Witness: William Tyrrell, which is produced by News Ltd following the 10th anniversary of the toddler’s disappearance on September 12, 2014.
A police search of the man’s bushland property two days after William’s disappearance uncovered small bones in barrels, but they were later determined to be from animals.
The man at first denied they were there but later claimed they were planted by police.
He told the podcast that his off-the-grid lifestyle and rejection of the mainstream had made him a police target.
‘What I don’t like is the way people who are slightly different are singled out here,’ he said.
William Tyrrell, aged three, his foster grandmother’s home in Kendall on the NSW mid north coast in September 2014
‘They get harassed, they get persecuted because they’re odd. I don’t like the way people are presumed guilty until proven innocent.
‘It could have been someone who was driving past (who was responsible for William’s disappearance). That’s as likely as anything else isn’t it?’
Mr Jubelin, who was taken off the investigation in 2019 and later convicted for illicitly recording conversations with a different person of interest, told the NSW’s director of inquests in 2020 the man should be called as a witness for an ongoing inquest.
The inquest before Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame has declined to call the man as a witness despite Mr Jubelin describing his behaviour as ‘concerning’.
This included an allegation the man put a basketball down his pants near school kids and that he turned up at Port Macquarie Police Station demanding to speak to Mr Jubelin.
On another occasion he allegedly went to the same police station and put ‘his hands across the service counter and motioning (sic) for himself to be handcuffed and arrested for William’s disappearance’.
Former lead investigator Gary Jubelin has urged an inquest to call up a former ‘person of interest’ who lived in bushland only a few hundred metres from where William went missing
Mr Jubelin said the man ‘provided what I would consider exculpatory explanations’ for these alleged incidents.
The man told the podcast a detective previously and falsely accused him of being involved in William’s disappearance.
‘Admit it, mate, you took the bastard didn’t you?’ the man said an unnamed detective asked him.
The man said his response was: ‘You’re kidding aren’t you?’
He said the culprit would have to have known that William was at his foster grandmother’s and accused NSW Police of ‘bungling’ the investigation saying they had little cohesion or organisation.
The man, who was nicknamed ‘Gorillas in the Mist’ by NSW Police for his unconventional lifestyle, also claimed Mr Jubelin made up ‘nonsense stories’ about William, including that he ‘had a heart attack and they dumped him in the bush’.
Last year the inquest into William’s disappearance and suspected death was delayed as prosecutors weighed up charges against the boy’s foster mother.
Police began investigating a theory that William had died in an accidental fall from a balcony and the foster mother had disposed of the body.
Police are seen supervising the clearing of bushland in nearby town of Kendall in a 2021 search for William
William’s foster mother and father have continuously denied the allegation and any wrongdoing.
The inquest is now scheduled to resume with another block of hearings later this year.
During a directions hearing at the NSW Coroner’s Court at Lidcombe on Tuesday, Ms Grahame confirmed the dates for the final block of hearings – in the weeks starting November 4 and December 16.
The Coroner will hand down her findings at a later date.
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