‘Secrecy made us look like criminals’: William Tyrrell’s grandmother Natalie Collins has spoken out
The biological grandmother of missing boy William Tyrrell says her family was ‘made to look like criminals’ by the secrecy surrounding his case.
Nearly three years after he went missing, the child’s birth parents have finally been named following a landmark court ruling.
Karlie Tyrrell, understood to be from Sydney’s inner west, was revealed as the boy’s birth mother. Her partner, Brendan, is William’s father.
After their names emerged, grandmother Natalie Collins told Daily Mail Australia: ‘They made us look like criminals for so long with all the secrecy and not naming us.
‘We were happy to be named all along but they wouldn’t let us.
‘I really think that all the weirdness with not being able to name Karlie and Brendan or the carers has made people think there is something suss about it.’
Karlie Tyrrell (pictured here) has been publicly identified as the boy’s biological mother
Mother and son are pictured here, left and right, in these file pictures
Ms Tyrrell is pictured here in a social media photograph
Ms Collins argued they were ‘not the ones looking after William when he went missing… They took him into care and promised us he would be safe’.
‘We are so relieved by the judge’s decision and I am very grateful to (activist) Allanna (Smith) for what she’s done for William.’
It has been revealed William was taken into foster care when he was nine months old.
He was in foster care when he was abducted at age three from his foster grandmother’s home in Kendall, on the New South Wales north coast.
The parents were separated but are now back together.
There is no suggestion whatsoever the parents or foster family had any involvement in the boy’s disappearance.
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
Karlie Tyrrell, biological mother of William, can now be pictured
Police are pictured here on participating in the search for William Tyrrell in March 2015
Alanna Pearl Smith co-runs the Walking Warriors 4 Missing Children group – and led the effort to overturn the gag order
The parents’ identities have been an open secret on the internet for years. But only now can their identities be published following a stunning court ruling.
A Court of Appeal ruling published this week allows William to be named as who he is – a foster child, taken in by the out-of-home care system.
He was legally in the care of the minister responsible, the court heard.
In a decision upheld by a higher court this week, Supreme Court Justice Paul Brereton ruled that the truth about the little boy being in out of home care could be reported.
It was a stunning defeat for the Department of Family and Community Services (FACS).
FACS had tried to silence a vigilante Facebook group, Walking Warriors 4 Missing Children, for various posts on social media.
The Department argued identifying William would have a ‘stigmatising’ effect, would impact his foster family and would hinder the police investigation.
But Justice Brereton ruled any effect on the child’s welfare was ‘diminished by the tragic probability that he is dead’.
He ruled there was substantial public interest in the ‘accountability and scrutiny of the out-of-home care system’ and accurately reporting the circumstances of William’s disappearance. FACS will have to pay Ms Smith’s costs.
There is a $1 million reward for information which leads to the toddler’s discovery. He has been missing since September 12, 2014.
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