William Tyrrell’s foster mother has failed to have her trial for charges of allegedly stalking or intimidating an 11-year-old girl heard in secret.
It comes as a judge said that the child’s fears of ‘physical violence, humiliation and punishment’ may have been valid.
The 58-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to two charges of assaulting the girl on Monday.
The foster mother’s lawyer John Stratton SC then applied to have her trial for the remaining charges held entirely behind closed doors.
But Magistrate Susan McIntyre dismissed the application on Monday afternoon, find ‘it goes beyond the principles of open justice.’
Her Honour also dismissed an application to have the prosecution’s tendency evidence thrown out.
The magistrate found that it had ‘probative value’ in pointing towards the foster mother’s guilt.
William Tyrrell’s foster parents arrive at court on Monday for a five-day trial overf allegations they assaulted and stalked and intimidated an 11-year-old girl during an eight months period in 2021
‘I would categorise the material relied upon in relation to (foster mother) SD’s conduct as threat and warning as to what will happen in relation to continuing behaviours,’ she siad.
Both foster parents are accused of stalking or intimidating and cause fear of physical or mental harm against a child between January 26, 2021 and August 30, 2021. They have pleaded not guilty to these offences.
The foster father is also accused of common assault against a child, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
The offences allegedly occurred at two different residences on Sydney’s North Shore.
The girl is due to testify via pre-recorded evidence during a week-long trial at Parramatta Local Court in Sydney’s west.
The court heard about heated verbal exchanges between the child and about an alleged recording of the then primary schoolgirl being smacked.
The foster mother of missing toddler William Tyrrell (above) has failed in bid to have trial on charges related to a young girl heard in secret
Defence barrister John Stratton SC argued that repeated incidents, including a threatened warning by the foster mother that if the child continued to behave badly ‘she would slap her’ was just ‘lawful chastisement, it’s not a criminal activity’.
He said if a threat by a parent to discipline a child as deemed criminal ‘that would criminalise every household in Australia’.
He said a reference to an alleged recording of the sound of three smacks being issued could have been about ‘someone in the family striking a desk’.
But police prosecutor Detective Chief Inspector John Marsh said the sounds ‘smack, smack, smack’ had been indicated in a recording, and that multiple alleged incidents or threats to the young girl were ‘certainly not what (happened in) every household in Australia’
He said there was an incident in which the child used a phone without permission, and then called the foster mother ‘a f***ing b***h’.
‘It is the cumulative effect of all these incidents to show that (the foster mother) knew her conduct was likely to cause fear but nonetheless continued.’
William Tyrrell’s foster mother (pictured) pleaded guilty to two charges of common assault at Parramatta Local Court on Monday. The charges related to a young child, who is not William
Police allege the foster mother threatened the girl while her foster father allegedly grabbed her by the neck after the girl said she ‘hated’ them.
William’s foster father allegedly ‘grabbed’ the girl about the neck and ‘physically restrained her to sit back down’ in the kitchen of a suburban home.
She later told a teacher she was afraid to go back to the house, police will allege.
One one day in November 2021, the child had been placed in a 44-minute time-out period and had then told the couple, referred to before the court as SD and JS, that she ‘hated them’.
Attending the hearing was a large group of detectives from Strike Force Rosann, which is investigating the disappearance of William Tyrrell, including the task force commander Detective Chief Inspector David Laidlaw.
The court was told the foster mother had been ‘attempting to intervene in the (alleged) victim’s problematic behaviour’.
She warned the girl that if she were to defecate on the floor she would rub her face in it, it is alleged.
Police will allege that when the child screamed out in pain, the female foster carer ‘then forced the child to sit on the floor for an extended period of time before kicking the (alleged) victim and causing her pain and bruising.
‘The (alleged) victim is reported to have tried to get up a number of times but (SD) forced her to sit down.’
A psychological report after the event alleges the child was ‘pleading’ with SD to stop while the two defendants allegedly subjected her to a 15-minute ‘tirade of verbal abuse’.
William Tyrrell (above) disappeared aged three in September 2014 in the NSW Mid North Coast town of Kendall and no trace of the toddler has ever been found
However lawyers for the accused lodged an objection at the beginning of the five-day hearing to at least one psychological expert, Dr Banks.
The alleged victim spoke to her schoolteacher and ‘expressed being afraid to return home’.
SD and her husband JS were charged with common assault of the girl in late 2021, as police embarked on a new search of bushland near the NSW Mid North Coast town of Kendall for the remains of William Tyrrell.
They have also entered guilty pleas to charges of using a dummy bidder to increase the sale price of their former ‘forever home’ for missing William on Sydney’s North Shore at an auction in 2020.
The foster father faced court alongside his wife, charged with the alleged assault and stalking or intimidating of a child
The foster mother (above in Kendall after William vanished) is appearing in Parramatta Local Court on charges of assaulting and stalking a child
The charges were downgraded to regulatory offences under the Property and Stock Agents Act and the pair will be sentenced this week and fined.
William disappeared aged three in September 2014 in the NSW Mid North Coast town of Kendall and no trace of the toddler has ever been found.
No-one has ever been charged over his disappearance.
A new search of bushland within 700m of the Kendall house where William was last seen was conducted in late 2021, but no items of significance have been identified.
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