- Missing toddler William Tyrell was a foster child at the time of his disappearance
- Tyrell, then three years old, was staying at his foster grandmother’s house
- Supreme Court released the documents saying it is of ‘legitimate public interest’
- Justice Brereton also said there is ‘the tragic probability that he is no longer alive’
William Tyrell was a foster child at the time of his disappearance from his foster grandmother’s home on the New South Wales mid-north coast.
William was three years old at the time he vanished from the front yard of the foster family’s home near Kendall on September 12, 2014, wearing the now infamous Spiderman costume.
Court of Appeal documents say because William was under the care of the NSW Minister for Family and Community Services, as a foster child, the information could be released because it was of ‘legitimate public interest’, A Current Affair reported.
The releasing of the documents came after a Supreme Court judge overruled the department in charge of the investigation.
The judge, Justice Brereton, also made a confronting statement about William, saying there is ‘the tragic probability that he is no longer alive’.
There is no suggestion William Tyrell’s biological or foster family had anything to do with his abduction.
William Tyrell was a foster child at the time of his disappearance from his foster grandmother’s home on the New South Wales mid-north coast
William’s status as a foster child has been a closely guarded secret of the courts and police since his disappearance nearly three years ago.
Justice Brereton disagreed with the stance of the The Department of Family and Community Services that releasing the information would have a negative effect on the case.
‘The notion that the efforts of trained and experienced police investigators might be distracted – presumably by an influx of pseudo-information in the nature of rumour and speculation – is quite unconvincing,’ Justice Brereton says in the Court of Appeal judgement.