‘I feel her loss’: Activist Allanna Smith said she felt Karlie Tyrrell’s (pictured) loss when her son William vanished
The woman who lifted the veil of secrecy over missing boy William Tyrrell has revealed she never met the toddler or his family – but had a ‘primal’ urge to help his mother.
Allanna Pearl Smith, a child protection activist from the NSW south coast, has won a stunning victory against the Department of Family and Community Services.
Nearly three years after the little Spiderman vanished, a court ruled it was public interest to reveal Tyrrell was in out-of-home foster care at the time he vanished.
And speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Friday, Ms Smith said she did it all for the boy’s biological mother, Karlie, whose identity was revealed this week.
‘I have a primal connection with a woman I have never met…and I feel her loss, that primal loss, through no fault of her own,’ Ms Smith said.
‘The only thing she did wrong was being young, with no support of her own… I feel for that young woman and I have never even met her.’
Allanna Smith (pictured) revealed she didn’t even know the missing boy or his family – but felt a primal connection with his biological mother and wanted to help her
NSW Police issued a million dollar reward for the little boy (left and right), who went missing from his foster grandmother’s home in Kendall on September 12, 2014
A court ruled it was in the public’s interest to reveal Tyrrell was in out-of-home foster care at the time he vanished. His birth mother Karlie is pictured here in a social media photograph
But while Ms Smith said she didn’t know Ms Tyrrell, she admitted she had personal experience with the system failing children.
The group, which she co-runs, has more than 11,000 Facebook fans and seeks to promote a coronial inquest into his disappearance.
Ms Smith’s comments came as heartbreaking new images emerged of William before he went missing.
The disclosure of his foster care past, one of the legal community’s worst kept secrets, came as as heartbreaking pictures emerged of the boy before he vanished.
The court’s decision also led to a flood of new publicity about William. There is a $1 million reward for information about his whereabouts.
The Department of Family and Community Services had tried to silence Ms Smith’s Facebook group, Walking Warriors 4 Missing Children, with an injunction.
But Supreme Court Justice Paul Brereton ruled that the truth about the little boy’s foster care could be reported after admitting that it was probable that he had died.
Little boy lost William Tyrrell – who would now be aged six – is seen playing in this new photo
It has been close to three years since Tyrrell went missing on the NSW north coast
FACS argued identifying William would have a ‘stigmatising’ effect, would impact his foster family and would hinder the police investigation.
But the judge noted, there was a substantial public interest in the foster care system and Ms Smith also had the ‘right of free expression’ about it.
Ms Smith worked with a barrister in the landmark case.
‘I am quite unpersuaded that it would hinder it (the police investigation),’ Justice Brereton said.
Police are pictured here scouring for evidence of Tyrrell’s disappearance in March 2015
Justice Brereton said he was unpersuaded revealing William was a foster child would disrupt the police investigation
He said it was inexplicable why the boy’s carers had been represented as William’s parents.
His ruling was upheld by the Court of Appeal in a decision published this week.
A supporter of Ms Smith, who did not want to be named, told Daily Mail Australia the court’s decision was ‘bloody fantastic’.
‘William needs to come home and we will never give up. Allanna Smith led the way and she won’.
The court ordered FACS pay Ms Smith’s costs.
A meme posted on the popular vigilante Walking for Warriors Facebook page
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