EXCLUSIVE
One of the nation’s longest-serving homicide chiefs has defended his former detectives against allegations there was ‘a pattern’ of ignoring ‘credible tips’ on the whereabouts of missing toddler William Tyrrell.
Former NSW deputy police commissioner Mick Willing said extensive resources – and countless man hours – had been dedicated to finding the three-year-old since he vanished during a visit to his foster grandmother’s house in 2014.
Mr Willing said the state’s dedicated detectives had been left heartbroken by their inability to locate the innocent young boy in the decade since his disappearance despite numerous interstate and international sightings.
He rejected any suggestion investigators had made a public appeal for information about William’s fate, only to wilfully dismiss ensuing tips phoned in to Crime Stoppers or reported to police.
‘Strike Force Rosann investigators, under the direction of the lead detective, followed up hundreds of reported sightings of William Tyrrell in the weeks, months and years following his disappearance,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Whilst I was the Commander of the Homicide Squad, I can recall a number of occasions where alleged sightings of William Tyrrell both in NSW and in other states were in circumstances where the hopes of investigators were raised to point of excitement.
‘But sadly none of the sightings proved to be him.’
His comments come after a new podcast exploring the toddler’s disappearance alleged it had ‘uncovered worrying claims suggesting a pattern of information being either not passed on to detectives, or not followed up on by police’.
Missing toddler William Tyrrell was wearing a distinctive Spider-Man costume the day he vanished during a visit to his foster grandmother’s home on NSW mid-north coast
The three-year-old was last seen playing hide and seek with his sister outside this house
The podcast cited five people who felt their reported sightings of the missing toddler had not been taken seriously by investigators.
One woman claimed she spotted the missing toddler with a group of people on a camping trip near Uluru a year after he vanished, while another claimed she saw him on a bus ride from Albury to Sydney.
A separate potential witness said he was ‘p***ed off with Crime Stoppers’ for not taking him seriously after he reported seeing two cars outside the home where William went missing, even though a lead detective working the case later publicly revealed the lead had been a line of enquiry.
Mr Willing, who commanded NSW’s homicide squad between 2011 and 2017, said investigators had been inundated with tips in the wake of Williams disappearance.
While the overwhelming number of leads generated by the public appeal made it impractical to provide every tipster with personal feedback, he wanted to assure the public that detectives had diligently worked their way through all the incoming intel.
He said investigators had chased down numerous potential sightings of William in their hunt only to have their hopes of finding him alive repeatedly dashed.
Former NSW deputy police commissioner Mick Willing says police are equally heartbroken by their inability to locate the missing toddler after doing everything they could to find him
‘The sheer volume of information that a high-profile investigation like the disappearance of William Tyrell gets, particularly if the investigation focuses on using the media as a tool, can be extremely difficult to manage,’ he said.
‘However, processes were put into place to respond to alleged sightings of William Tyrell that included close liaison with police across NSW and with investigators in other states across Australia.’
Another potential witness who spoke to the podcast complained she had phoned Crime Stoppers to suggest police investigate a local resident who lived near William’s foster grandmother but never heard back.
Mr Willing said the fact the resident was later publicly identified as a person of interest in William’s disappearance – before eventually being ruled out as a suspect – demonstrated just how seriously detectives had taken the community’s tips.
He said the hunt had been so widespread, the workload had to be shared across the entire police force.
‘In the months that followed the disappearance, there were literally hundreds of ‘persons of interest’ that had to be assessed, prioritised and investigated,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘In order to do that, follow-up investigations were conducted by the Homicide Squad – the highest priority assessments – other Squads across the entire State Crime Command, and Local Area Command investigators.’
Investigators initially thought William Tyrrell had been snatched by an opportunistic abductor but, 10 years on, they now believe he is dead
Mr Willing conceded police had ruled out some of the incoming tips but said it was only done after investigators established they were not ‘genuine’.
‘Among the thousands of genuine calls about alleged sightings of William Tyrrell were calls from crackpots, clairvoyants and others who wanted to inject themselves into the public arena,’ he said.
The last confirmed sighting of William was at his foster grandmother’s home in the sleepy town of Kendall, about a half hour drive south-west of Port Macquarie on the NSW mid-north coast on September 12, 2014.
He had been wearing a distinctive Spider-Man costume and playing hide and seek with his sister outside the house in Benaroon Drive before vanishing around 10.30am after his foster mother went inside to make a cup of tea.
She reported him missing in a triple-0 at 10.57am leading to one of the nation’s most enduring missing person investigations.
Although police initially feared William had been abducted he is now presumed dead.
Multiple searches – and a $1million reward for information – have failed to locate his remains.
Police offered a $1million reward for information leading to the whereabouts of little William
Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame ran an 18-month inquest into the toddler’s disappearance and suspected death before it was adjourned in October 2020 as prosecutors considered charges against the boy’s foster mother.
Both of William’s foster parents had repeatedly and vigorously denied having any involvement in his disappearance.
The inquest is scheduled to resume next month at the NSW Coroner’s Court, with the final pieces of evidence set to be heard in the week before Christmas ahead of the findings being handed down next year.
Mr Willing said while he shared the public’s frustration that police were still to solve the long-running mystery, he insisted the detectives involved were doing everything they could to bring those responsible for William’s disappearance to justice.
‘At the end of the day, we all what to know what happened to William and we hope the inquest will provide some answers,’ he said.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk