Australia Australia - William Tyrrell, 3, Kendall, Nsw, 12 Sept 2014 - #54

[interested64]

I've just been sorting though the evidence from this last section of the inquest. Happy to repost each witness's evidence if you haven't all heard too much about it already?

That would be great as in like the above TJ version,but a FA one

 

[Tinker Taylor]

That would be great as in like the above TJ version,but a FA one

I haven't summarised it. It is simply the entire evidence of each of the witnesses.

 

[Tinker Taylor]

Lia J Harris Tweets

Inquest beginning 9 March 2020



The Coronial Inquest into the disappearance of William Tyrrell will resume this morning in Taree, about 50km from where the toddler disappeared on the NSW Mid North Coast.



Coroner Harriet Grahame has again opened the inquest by thanking William’s “family and friends” for being here and told the court she acknowledges “keeping the faith is challenging”. She said her legal team had “worked tirelessly” and “committed to finding answers”.

Convicted paedophile Frank Abbott, who was living near Benaroon Drive when William disappeared, is up on the court screen via video link from jail and is expected to testify at some stage.

Counsel Assisting the Coroner Gerard Craddock SC has opened by saying “someone knows something” about William’s disappearance and assured them they “need not be afraid” to come forward.

Craddock appeals to the woman Ron Chapman claims to have seen driving a car with a little boy in a Spider-Man suit in the backseat to come forward, saying “that person would have nothing to fear coming forward”.

Craddock told the court “it’s an appalling thing we still have no certainty as to what became of a three year old simply playing in the garden”.

Kellie Lee

Mid North Coast local Kellie Lee is now on the stand. Her parents lived on the same street as Ron Chapman at the time William disappeared and she had a “blonde haired” son about the same age as William at the time.

Ms Lee told the court her son had a Spider-Man suit around that time. She has since tried to find photos of him wearing it to determine exactly when he had the suit.

She told the court her son was not wearing the Spider-Man suit when they left home on September 12, 2014, to visit her parents “as far as I can recall”.

She told the court she arrived at her parents house “a little earlier” than 10.45am that day and her son was wearing the Spider-Man suit at their house at some stage.

Craddock asks her if there was any chance her son may have been unrestrained in the backseat when she drove to her parents house that day. She told the court it was “extremely unlikely” and the children knew not to take off their seatbelts in the car.

She told the court her son was wearing the Spider-Man suit while at his grandparents house that day.

Ms Lee told the court she asked her son to take off his Spider-Man suit after she learned a little boy in a Spider-Man suit had gone missing nearby.

 

[zenzen]

Although there aren't many missing young children in Australia.

approx 20,000 kids get reported missing in australia every year.
currently we have about 150 long term missing kids under 18.
compared to the usa we definitely don't have the numbers they do, but i would hesitate to say there aren't many ....

 

[Warshawski]

I also think we need to remember that Ray had 2 friends - we have heard a lot about one of them in being F Abbot, but nothing yet about "Phil"??

I think there is a friend called "Phil"....... and interestingly, I imagine locals will know exactly who Phil is - now that the Inquest have released his name to the Public!

I’m sure it will SLouTH, and it pricked my memory. I don’t have a link but I seem to recall a Philip from a charity shop having something to say at one stage ..IMO

 

[Chrissy74]

So did Ray live in Kendall or Wauchope?

Also wanted to add Interested64 that the Kendall Showgrounds has a camping site with a 3 day maximum stay so it’s highly unlikely RP actually resided there. Its more likely he was a member of Kendalls Men’s Shed which is located at the Showgrounds and is open to its members and local volunteers 2 days a week. So I’m guessing his home was in Wauchope.

 

[Tinker Taylor]

Lia J Harris Tweets

Inquest beginning 9 March 2020


Ronald Chapman

Ronald Chapman has now taken the stand for a second time. He previously claimed to have seen a little boy in a Spider-Man suit in the backseat of a car driving past his house the morning William Tyrrell disappeared.

Mr Chapman told the court he knew Ms Lee’s parents and was aware they had small grandchildren at the time.

He reiterates to the court that he believes he saw William Tyrrell in the backseat of a car that drove past that morning. The woman he saw driving had blonde hair in a bun on top of her head.

Craddock asked him if there was “any chance” the woman driving was Kellie Lee. Mr Chapman responded that Ms Lee “always had dark hair” and was not the same height.

The court heard Ms Lee was driving a dark blue Subaru Outback at the time. Mr Chapman claims he saw the child in a “fawn or light brown” car followed by a blue sedan.

Craddock asked Mr Chapman if he could have mistaken Ms Lee’s son for William Tyrrell. Mr Chapman told the court “I’m sure it was William Tyrrell”.

Craddock asked Mr Chapman if it was possible the car he saw the boy in was Ms Lee’s car and he responded “no”.

Craddock asked Mr Chapman “given it was a blink and you miss it kind of moment, what makes you so sure it was a Spider-Man suit?”. Mr Chapman responded “that’s just what it appeared to me” and told the court “I’m sure it was William”.

 

[Tinker Taylor]

Debbie Jones

Debbie Jones has now taken the stand. She was previously married to person of interest Tony Jones, who is a convicted child sex offender.

Ms Jones is being questioned about the friendship between Tony Jones and Paul Bickford, who has also been convicted of a child sex offence.

Ms Jones told the court Tony Jones left home early on the day William went missing, “between 7.30 and 8am”, saying he was “going out scrapping” with their son.

Ms Jones told the court she then saw her son later that day who said he had not seen Tony at all and wasn’t aware of plans to go scrapping.

She told the court Tony then arrived home that afternoon “drunk”. She said she confronted him about “why he lied” about going scrapping with their son and he “stormed out the back”.

She told the court Tony later said he would go out and help look for “the missing child” after they heard William had disappeared. He then decided not to because “he figured there was enough people looking”.

Max Jones

Local man Max Jones has now taken the stand. He told the court he used to regularly walk his dogs at a reserve near Laurieton, about 15 minutes drive from Kendall. The court is now being shown a video walkthrough he did with detectives at the reserve in 2018.

Jones told the detective in the video he pulled up at the reserve and saw a man sitting in another car parked there. He said “he was looking at me and I was looking at him” before he wound up his window “very quickly”. He said he noticed the vehicle was “very fogged up”.

Mr Jones told the detective he later saw Tony Jones and his car “on the news” and believed “it was definitely him” he had seen at the reserve that day. He said it was months afterwards but he was “100% sure” it was him.

Mr Jones is asked if he was sure the day he saw the man at the reserve was September 12, 2014 and he told the court he was sure it was that day and believed it was about “10 to 12” that morning.

Mr Jones claims this encounter with the man in the car happened at the Henry Kendall Reserve on the day William went missing, about 12km from Benaroon Drive.

He told the court he went to the Kendall RSL later that day and was told about the missing boy.

Duane Gardoll

The William Tyrrell inquest has resumed, with Counsel Assiting the Coroner Gerard Craddock telling the court a witness has missed a flight and another is no longer required. Duane Gardoll is now on the stand, he is the son of convicted child sex offender Tony Jones.


Mr Gardoll is asked about Jones’ car, a white Ford Courier, which he painted blue sometime before September 2014. He couldn’t recall exactly when he painted the car but told the court “he got done for DUI in it so he painted it blue”.


The court is now being shown images of a burned out car, which Mr Gardoll told the court belonged to Tony Jones.


Mr Gardoll told the court he didn’t “go scrapping” with Jones the morning William disappeared, despite Jones’ wife testifying that’s where Jones said he’d gone. Mr Gardoll said he was at home when he saw on the news a little boy had gone missing from Kendall.


Mr Gardoll told the court he saw Jones later that day, around 4-4.30pm, and he was laying in bed “pretty well intoxicated”. He said Jones told him he’d been scrapping in the forest that morning.


Mr Gardoll told the court Jones then told him to “get the motorbikes ready” to go to Kendall and help search for William Tyrrell the next day. He said he never showed up the next morning. Instead, he told him he’d spent the petrol money on “longnecks” to drink with Paul Bickford.


Mr Gardoll told the court his mother kicked Jones out of the house a “couple of weeks later” and he no longer has any contact with him.

 

[Tinker Taylor]

Tony Jones


The inquest has resumed with Anthony (Tony) Jones in the witness box. The court heard they got a flat tyre on the way here after he missed his flight.


The court heard Mr Jones had a permit to collect scrap metal from the forest to sell. He told the court he went with Mr Gardoll “99.9% of the time”, but “once in a while” he would “sneak away and do it by myself and keep the money for myself”.


Jones is being asked about his movements the morning William vanished and why he told his then wife Debbie he was scrapping with Mr Gardoll. He told the court “if I wasn’t scrapping and I was away from the house, I was probably sleeping with Debbie’s friend next door”.


Jones told the court his former wife and children never saw him drunk because “I could drink all day and it made no difference”.


He told the court he has “no recollection” of what he did the morning William disappeared.


When asked to confirm he has no memory of what he did that day, he responded “do you remember what you did in 1952?” He then reiterated that he doesn’t remember.


The court heard one of Jones’ neighbours was Frank Abbott’s son-in-law, but Jones told the court they didn’t know each other back then, later crossing paths in jail. Abbott is also a person of interest in the case.


Jones is asked about the reported sighting of him at Henry Kendall Reserve the morning William disappeared and he told the court “that person who recognised me needs to go to an optometrist”. He claimed he never drove a car of that description.


The court heard Jones was then arrested for an unrelated charge on September 20, 2014, and released again in December 2017.


The William Tyrrell inquest has resumed in Taree, but sex offender Tony Jones is still on his way here from Sydney and won’t resume his testimony until later this morning. Local woman Iris Northam has taken the stand. Her and husband ran a scrap metal business


Tony Jones has now taken the stand again after arriving from Sydney. He’s being asked about the two phones he had in 2014.


He’s asked about phone calls he made the day William disappeared and told the court “I have no recollection of that day”.


Abbott is now questioning Jones himself and asked him about two men he saw in the bush in Kendall, when he claims one man said his name was Jones. Jones denied it was him. Jones also said “you just admitted we never met, Frank”.


Abbott told the court he later met Jones when they were both serving time in Grafton jail.


The court has now been closed for further confidential evidence.

 

[Tinker Taylor]

Iris Northam


Mrs Northam told the court she and her husband previously employed Frank Abbott to do “odd jobs” around the scrap metal yard. Abbott is a person of interest in the case and is currently serving jail time for child sexual offences. He’s listening to the testimony via video link.


Mrs Northam is asked about a woman found murdered in a local river bed in 1996. She told the court she saw Abbott shortly after and he had “some marks on his arm” which he claimed were from “oysters”. She told the court “they didn’t look like oyster scratches to me”.


Mrs Northam told the court the scratches looked “more like finger marks had gouged skin”. She was asked if she “had a level of concern” about it and she replied “well, sort of, yes”.


The questions refer to the murder of 37-year-old Margaret Cox, who was found bludgeoned to death two days after she disappeared while walking home between Cundletown and Taree on December 19, 1996.


Mrs Northam is now asked about the sawmill where Abbott was living around the time William Tyrrell disappeared. That site has been searched extensively by detectives recently.


The court heard Abbott used to spend time with a friend named Ray who lived at the Kendall Showground. Mrs Northam couldn’t recall his last name



Patrick Teeling

Mr Teeling told the court Abbott was “up to no good” and he was wary of him.


Mr Teeling told the court he saw Abbott sometime after William went missing and Abbott commented that Tony Jones was being targeted by investigators after his car was seized for forensic examination.


Peter Huntley

Peter Huntley told the court Frank Abbott lived next door to their house in a caravan in 2015. The caravan was previously occupied by Geoff Owen, who testified at the inquest last year about the work he did at William’s foster grandmother’s house installing decking.

Mr Huntley told the court his “initial impression” of Abbott was that he was a “very helpful man” and he often saw him walking into town.

Mr Huntley told the court Abbott knocked on their door late one night to tell them Geoff Owen was “a person of interest in the Willial Tyrrell case”. They thought it was “the oddest thing”.

Jodie Huntley

Jodie Huntley told the court she was wary of Abbott and “didn’t want him around my children”. The Huntleys have both finished their evidence.

We can also reveal police police searched the property next door to the Huntleys where Abbott lived in 2015 just two weeks ago, bringing in sniffer dogs and police divers to search the dam. Geoff Owen, who repaired William’s foster grandmother’s decking, also lived there in 2014.

 

[Tinker Taylor]

Jan Anderson

The William Tyrrell inquest has resumed in Taree. Jan Anderson is in the witness box. She and her husband owned a take away shop in Wauchope in September 2014, about 23km from Kendall

The court heard before they owned the take away, they owned a general store in Johns River, where they met Frank Abbott, who’s now a suspect in the case. Ms Anderson told the court Abbott told them he’d been acquitted of a murder. “He used to discuss it with anybody or anyone”

Ms Anderson told the court Abbott used to do “odd jobs” for them before some money went missing from their shop. She told the court “we couldn’t prove that... but we just knew that’s who did it.”

She told the court they were “wary” of Abbott and never left children alone with him, saying “he used to always try to be friendly to the children and we just had a feeling that we didn’t trust him around children”.

She is asked if she recalls whether or not Abbott came into their shop in Wauchope the day William went missing and she told the court “I don’t remember if he was there at that time”.

Ms Anderson told the court in the weeks after William vanished Abbott used to talk about the case “quite a bit” and repeatedly told them about a “funny smell” on a hillside he noticed on his regular walk home to Logan’s Crossing.

She told the court they suggested it could be a dead animal and he said “no it’s not, I know what a dead animal smells like”. They suggested he go and “have a look” and he responded “oh no, if there’s something up there I’ll get the blame for it”.

She told the court he also didn’t want to tell police about the smell and they said “If you’re not going to go to the police then shut up about it”. They later took their daughter to show her where Abbott said the smell was.

Abbott questioned her himself via video link. He told the court he recalls being at their shop in Wauchope when they heard on the radio that a little boy had gone missing. Ms Anderson told the court she doesn’t recall him being there that day.

Dean Anderson

Ms Anderson’s son Dean Anderson is now in the witness box. He told the court he thought Abbott was a “dirty old man” who used to “constantly go on about how he beat a murder charge in Sydney” and seemed to think it was a “badge of honour”.

Mr Anderson told the court Abbott spoke about William’s disappearance after September 12 “several times”. He said on one occasion he commented when police were searching Bill Spedding’s property that “they were searching in the wrong spot”. He said he found it “strange”.

He told the court on another occasion he spoke about “the smell” and when Mr Anderson suggested it could be a dead kangaroo, he claimed Abbott responded “I know the difference between a dead kangaroo and a dead human smell”.

Sherie Hamilton

Ms Anderson’s daughter Sherie Hamilton is now on the stand. She told the court Abbott used to talk about the William Tyrrell case “a lot” and “I would say he was interested”.

Elizabeth Rowley

Local woman Elizabeth Rowley is now on the stand. She owned an antiques shop around late 2013 and 2014 both in Kendall and then in nearby Kew. She told the court Abbott came in on “six to eight” occasions to sell her antiques but she never bought any.

She told the court on one occasion he came to her shop in a white station wagon to show her some items.

Ms Rowley told the court another local man, Iris Northam’s husband, came into her shop and said Abbott was upset because he’d driven a “woman and a little boy” to Tamworth and hadn’t been paid. Mr Northam told her he was concerned it was “related to William Tyrrell”.

She told the court Mr Northam wanted her to tell her husband about his concerns because he’s a police officer, which she did. The court has now adjourned for the day.

 

[Tinker Taylor]

Officer Robert Dingle

The William Tyrrell inquest has resumed in Taree with police officer Robert Dingle on the stand. He told the court he was told in October 2018 Frank Abbott wanted to speak to police, so he went to interview him.

At the time, Abbott was facing a District Court trial and was in custody. He told Officer Dingle about a trip he took with his friend Ray Porter to a property near Kendall.

The court heard Abbott told him they went to a spot where there was a “log dump” and ran into two men in an old white station wagon. He said one man introduced himself as “Jones” and he told the officer he later saw a man on the news he recognised as the man he saw.

He said the men had a young boy with them “about 7 years of age”, however he “conceded his memory was not reliable at his age”. He told the officer he thought the encounter would have happened shortly after his release from prison in July 2015.

The Coroner asked Officer Dingle to clarify why Abbott thought this was relevant to the William Tyrrell case and he told the court “the gentleman he’d seen at the log dump he now believed was the same person” he’d seen on TV as a POI in the toddler’s disappearance.

He told the court Abbott was “adamant” that he wanted to ensure “the information would make its way to the Strike Force” investigating William’s disappearance.

Abbott is now questioning Officer Dingle himself, telling the court he couldn’t remember if that encounter happened before he went to jail or after he was released in July 2015.

Abbott asked Officer Dingle to confirm that he didn’t “ask for favours because he was going to court” and he confirmed he didn’t. He’s now been excused.

“Tanya”

A woman is now in the witness box, she has been given a pseudonym because she can’t legally be identified. We’ll refer to her as Tanya.

The court heard Tanya cared for two young boys for a week in 2018. She later told police they were listening to “a William Tyrrell song” when one of the boys told her “I know who killed William” and they’d been told not to tell anyone or their “mum’s neck could get snapped”.

She told the court the boy claimed they “had him in a suitcase and they’d seen the suitcase”. The court heard the other boy got “a bit cross” and said “you’re not supposed to tell anyone”. She told the court “he seemed serious, but, like, scared”.

“Amy”

Tanya has been excused and another woman, known as Amy, has taken the stand. She was also caring for the two boys.

Amy told the court Tanya told her one of the boys “had told her what had happened to William Tyrrell and that he’d been killed, placed in a suitcase and buried” and that she “had no thought they may have been making it up”

The woman claimed the boy told her it was Frank Abbott who had killed William Tyrrell.

 

[Tinker Taylor]

Danny Connell

The William Tyrrell inquest has resumed this morning in Taree, with several of his family members, both birth family and foster family, in the court room. Danny Connell is in the witness box, his wife is Ron Chapman’s niece.

He and his wife arrived in Kendall from Sydney on September 11, 2014, to babysit their grandchildren while their parents attended a wedding that weekend. They stayed at Ron Chapman’s house. To recap, Chapman is the man who claims to have seen William in a car after he vanished.

The court heard Mr Connell and his wife visited the local cemetery on the morning of September 12 to place flowers on a relative’s gravesite. They seem to be unclear of the exact time, but the court heard it was likely between 9.30am and 10.30am.

The cemetery is located next to Benaroon Drive, a short walk through the bush from William’s foster grandmother’s. The court was told Mr Connell heard a noise while they were there, saying it sounded like “something doing building work in the distance... I could hear a saw”.

Mr Connell told the court he drove to the “paper shop” in Kendall to get the paper after leaving the cemetery, when he saw an old white ute drive past as he crossed the road. He said the ute then “made contact” with the “keep left sign” as it drove down the hill.

He told the court the ute had “an old metal toolbox” in the back with the “corners bent up” and the driver was old with “thick-rimmed glasses” on. Mr Connell said he was in Coffs Harbour a week later when he remembered it in the middle of the night and called Crime Stoppers.

Mr Connell told the court they spent most of the day driving around the area visiting relatives before arriving back at Chapman’s house around 3.30pm, when they were told a little boy was missing. He said he doesn’t recall if he spoke to Mr Chapman about it at that point.

Mr Connell told the court they went to the Kendall Club for dinner that night, which was “empty for a Friday night”. Many people were still out searching for William that evening. He said they noticed people were still out with torches when they arrived home around 8pm.

Mr Connell told the court it was a year later, when they visited in September 2015, that Mr Chapman first mentioned the alleged sighting to them. He said “he was in quite a distressed state because he’d been interviewed” by police

Mr Connell told the court Mr Chapman had “forgotten we were there at that time, 12 months before”. He was asked if they spoke about it at all with Mr Chapman that night in 2014 when the searchers were out looking for William and he said they only acknowledged the search party.


Mr Connell told the court Chapman “had a couple of schooners” that night and was “unsteady on his feet” so they took him inside and went to bed. He said he never mentioned the sighting until their visit a year later.

Kathleen Connell

Mr Connell’s wife Kathleen is now in the witness box. Ron Chapman is her uncle. She is also recalling their movements on September 12, 2014. She recalls the “old ute” which hit the sign that morning being driven by a man in a “cowboy hat”.

Ms Connell told the court Mr Chapman didn’t mention the sighting of William that night or anytime that weekend. She’s now been excused.

 

[Tinker Taylor]

Martin Parish

Martin Parish is now on the stand, he’s a local chaplain who lived on Herons Creek Rd. The court heard he met Frank Abbott through his brother Daniel Parish in 2007.

Mr Parish told the court he attended church with Abbott several times in 2013. Geoff Owen, who repaired William’s foster grandmother’s deck in 2014 and also knew Abbott, also attended the services back then and still does.

Mr Parish told the court “Frank would come and download on me about things that were worrying him and I’d listen”. He is asked about Ray Porter and he told the court Porter wasn’t a parishioner but would “drop in” for morning tea occasionally.

Mr Parish told the court Abbott went to their house a couple of times, once to “look after our dogs” and another to help them in the garden. He’s asked if he was aware of him being charged with a child sex offence and he told the court he was.

The court heard Mr Parish appealed to the parishioners for help finding Abbott somewhere to live while he was on bail. Geoff Owen volunteered to let him live in his caravan in Logan’s Crossing. The court heard Mr Parish also went to his bail hearing in support of him.

The court heard Mr Parish and his wife continue to support Abbott. He is asked if he “accepts those jury verdicts as properly reflecting guilt on his part of those sexual offences against young children” and he responded “I have difficulty with that”

Mr Parish is asked if he knows where Abbott was the morning William Tyrrell disappeared. He told the court “only from questions I asked Frank... personally, I don’t know”. He told the court Abbott was a “creature of habit

The court is now being played a recorded phone call between Abbott and Mr Parish from August 12, 2019, while Abbott was in jail. Mr Parish tells Abbott during the call that his friend Ray Porter had passed away.

The court heard during another phone call to Abbott, Mr Parish referred to his brother Daniel Parish as a “pathological liar”.

Counsel Assisting puts to Mr Parish that “you seem to be taking up issues that (Abbott) raises with respect to the Tyrrell investigation and in a sense, doing his legwork on finding things out” in the months since he learned Abbott was a POI in the case. He agreed.

Mr Parish is asked what Abbott told him of his movements on the day William disappeared. He told the court Abbott told him “he started the morning off at the shop.. in Wauchope.. then he met up with his daughter and they went to the Uniting Church”.

Mr Parish told the court he and his wife ensured children in the parish weren’t at risk, saying they made sure the children were “never alone with anyone in a particular spot where they can’t be seen”.

Mr Parish is asked if he informed Abbott’s neighbours nextdoor to where he moved into the caravan, Peter and Jodie Huntley, that their new neighbour had been charged with child sex offences, given they had young children. He told the court he didn’t.

Mr Parish is asked if he would report something Abbott told him in confidence. He told the court if it was a criminal offence, “I’d have to stop the conversations and say this is reportable”. He then clarified “but we haven’t had those conversations”.

Daniel Parish

The William Tyrrell inquest has resumed in Taree. Daniel Parish is in the witness box, he is the brother or Martin Parish, who testified yesterday about his ongoing support of Frank Abbott

Mr Parish told the court Abbott used to do some work for him. He claimed he was prone to mood swings, saying “you don’t want to cross Frank”.

Mr Parish told the court Abbott threatened him during an argument, telling him he’d beaten a murder charge before and wasn’t afraid to go to jail. Claiming he said “I don’t care, I’ll go to jail, I’ll get three square meals a day”. He told the court he was scared of him.

The court heard Abbott once threatened Mr Parish with a machete while he was living on their property. Mr Parish told the court “we were trying to get him off the property and Frank was getting pretty angry about it”.

Mr Parish said he saw the artist impression in the newspaper of the cars the foster mother remembered seeing that morning on Benaroon Drive. He told the court he thought “that car looks familiar”, referring to the white vehicle. He said he went and “knocked on Frank’s door”.

Mr Parish told the court he doesn’t know where Abbott was the day William disappeared.

The court heard Mr Parish told police when he comforted Abbott to say he thought the white station wagon in the artist impression was Ray Porter’s car, “Frank told me it wasn’t Ray’s car”.

Mr Parish told the court Abbott was “dangerous”, saying “he scares me, put it that way”.

Abbott lived on the Parish property in September 2014, the same property searched by detectives in recent months.

The court heard Abbott told Mr Parish “I know where William Tyrrell is, check Geoff Owen’s place”. He’s now been excused.

 

[Tinker Taylor]

Kirston Okpegbue

Kirston Okpegbue is now in the witness box. She’s an aged care nurse who worked at an aged care home in Port Macquarie in 2018, where Ray Porter was a resident for 12 months before his death.

The court heard Ray Porter told Ms Okpegbue he kept “having visitors” at the nursing home. He then told her “I didn’t do anything wrong.. all I did was give my best mate and a boy a lift”. He told her she has a face he could trust.

The court heard he then told her he was referring to “the boy that went missing down in Kendall”. She asked him “are you talking about William Tyrrell?” And he said “yes”.

Tara Schofield

Tara Schofield is now in the witness box. She worked at the same aged care home where Porter was a patient. She said Porter spoke about two friends of his named “Phil” and “Frank”. She said she was told by another nurse about the conversation about William and called police.

Mr Anonymous Sawmill Man

Another man has entered the witness box, but we cannot legally identify him. He was linked to the sawmill property.

The man told the court he used to employ Abbott and was on very “friendly terms” with him. He described him as “very crafty” and “Mr fix it”.

The man told the court he once asked Abbott about the murder charge he was acquitted of and Abbott told him “a couple of mates borrowed my car... took this girl for a drive.. and she had an epileptic fit and died and 20 years later he’s been charged with this murder”.

The man told the court he thought it was “rubbish”.

The court is now being played a recorded phone call between this man and Abbott from August, 2019, while he was in jail. Abbott mentioned the Tyrrell case and the man asks why he’s being questioned and he replied “because I lived in the area... I’m not charged with anything”.

The man asks Abbott “where were you on that fu**ing Friday anyway?” and Abbott told him he was in Wauchope.

In another recorded phone call, the man asks Abbott about what the two young boys claimed he told them. When Abbott denied saying it, the man said “that must’ve come from somewhere, a little kid wouldn’t have made that up”. Abbott said “I don’t know... I never said that”.

he court heard in another phone call Abbott claimed to know “someone who was alleged to be involved in taking Tyrrell” and asked the man to come and visit him so he could tell him the names.

The court heard the man then visited Abbott in jail, where he handed him “two small pieces of paper” with his handwriting on it. He took the paper to police. The court has not been told what was written on them.

The William Tyrrell inquest will resume in Taree shortly with three more witnesses, but will adjourn indefinitely after today due to concerns about the coronavirus. A new date for resumption has not been determined.

Counsel Assisting Gerard Craddock SC told the court despite the adjournment, “the police investigation is continuing, is going to continue, there’s no halt to that”. The Coroner also told the court “there’s nothing in relation to this matter which I consider to be a cold case”.

Craddock also told the court “as a consequence of evidence we have called here, there has already been a witness who we had no idea about who has come forward and will be speaking to police”.

 

[Tinker Taylor]

Renee Jenner

Renee Jenner has now taken the stand. She’s another nurse at the aged care home in Port Macquarie where Ray Porter lived before his death. She told the court she visited his room last year while an older couple was there with him. She had a conversation with the three of them.

She told the court the older woman in the room commented that they had to go to court and Ms Jenner joked that it was something Porter had done. Porter then said “no, it’s about a little boy” before the woman said “no it’s not Ray, just leave it, I’ve told you so many times”.

She told the court “she was trying to stop him from talking to me... I felt Ray wanted to talk more to me”. She said she was left feeling physically ill, telling the court “for some unknown reason I wanted to vomit... just the way he said it to me and what happened in that room”.

Ms Jenner told the court there was no mention of William Tyrrell, but she reported it anyway. She said she made a statement to police about it without knowing about the conversations Porter allegedly had with her colleagues. She’s now been excused.

Tom Porter

Tom Porter, Ray’s brother, is now in the witness box. He described Ray as “sort of a loner” and said he was “easily influenced” by others who often “took advantage of him”.

Mr Porter told the court he and his wife regularly visited Ray in the nursing home in Port Macquarie in 2018 and 2019. The court heard they “didn’t know much about his life in 2014”.

Mr Porter told the court Ray had complained to him that the police kept “badgering him” and asking questions “about some child”. He said Ray told him he didn’t know how to answer them.

The court heard Mr Porter told police his brother Ray “had one good friend by the name of Frank” and that “Frank sometimes took his car”. Mr Porter told the court he was having trouble remembering what he told police.

The court heard police repeatedly visited Ray in the nursing home to interview him about William Tyrrell. Mr Porter told the court he told Ray to tell police to speak to him instead because he was worried the stress of it was affecting his health.

Mr Porter told the court he asked Ray what it was all about and he told him it was “about the children” and said “my mate and I were fishing and children walked across the road and he told them to get back because it was too dangerous and the children went back across the road”.

Mr Porter said he asked him “are you sure that’s what happened?” and he said he was.

Mr Porter told the court he never met Frank Abbott. He’s now been excused.

Irma Porter

Mr Porter’s wife Irma is now in the witness box. She told the court Ray told her the police had been asking him about Frank and whether or not he could drive, she said Ray told them “Frank can’t drive”.

The court heard Ms Porter told police “I got the impression Frank was not a very nice person. Ray told me one of his neighbours in Wauchope had told him to stay away from Frank”.

Ms Porter told the court she found a letter after Ray died, which appeared to have been sent from jail and was signed “from your good friend Frank”. She said the letter asked Ray to pick up his boat and move it “to a lady’s place”. She has since thrown it out.
She told the court the letter “meant nothing” at the time because she wasn’t interviewed by detectives until earlier this year. She told the court she got the impression Ray was “scared of Frank”.

Ms Porter is asked about the conversation with nurse Renee Jenner in Ray’s room. She told the court they told Ray not to talk about “the little boy” because it upset him and that “Ray was only a few days away from death and very confused and muddled and very ill”.

Ms Porter told the court she believed Ray was telling the truth about what he knew because “he would tell the truth to Tom...if he had something to hide he wouldn’t have hid it from his brother”. She said he knew he didn’t have long to live.

Ms Porter has been excused. The lawyer representing William’s birth father has applied to re-call Geoff Owen as a witness at a later date, which has been approved by the coroner. Owen knew Abbott and repaired decking William’s foster grandmother’s house in late 2014.

 

[katydid23]

WOW...so many possible suspects in such a quaint little village...

I'm still looking sideways at F Abbot though...

 

[interested64]

I've just been sorting though the evidence from this last section of the inquest. Happy to repost each witness's evidence if you haven't all heard too much about it already?

That would be great as in like the above TJ version

Jan Anderson

The William Tyrrell inquest has resumed in Taree. Jan Anderson is in the witness box. She and her husband owned a take away shop in Wauchope in September 2014, about 23km from Kendall

The court heard before they owned the take away, they owned a general store in Johns River, where they met Frank Abbott, who’s now a suspect in the case. Ms Anderson told the court Abbott told them he’d been acquitted of a murder. “He used to discuss it with anybody or anyone”

Ms Anderson told the court Abbott used to do “odd jobs” for them before some money went missing from their shop. She told the court “we couldn’t prove that... but we just knew that’s who did it.”

She told the court they were “wary” of Abbott and never left children alone with him, saying “he used to always try to be friendly to the children and we just had a feeling that we didn’t trust him around children”.

She is asked if she recalls whether or not Abbott came into their shop in Wauchope the day William went missing and she told the court “I don’t remember if he was there at that time”.

Ms Anderson told the court in the weeks after William vanished Abbott used to talk about the case “quite a bit” and repeatedly told them about a “funny smell” on a hillside he noticed on his regular walk home to Logan’s Crossing.

..so he walked from St Johns River or Wauchope to Logans Crossing ?

She told the court they suggested it could be a dead animal and he said “no it’s not, I know what a dead animal smells like”. They suggested he go and “have a look” and he responded “oh no, if there’s something up there I’ll get the blame for it”.

She told the court he also didn’t want to tell police about the smell and they said “If you’re not going to go to the police then shut up about it”. They later took their daughter to show her where Abbott said the smell was.

..well i hope this area has been fully searched ?

Abbott questioned her himself via video link. He told the court he recalls being at their shop in Wauchope when they heard on the radio that a little boy had gone missing. Ms Anderson told the court she doesn’t recall him being there that day.

Dean Anderson

Ms Anderson’s son Dean Anderson is now in the witness box. He told the court he thought Abbott was a “dirty old man” who used to “constantly go on about how he beat a murder charge in Sydney” and seemed to think it was a “badge of honour”.

Mr Anderson told the court Abbott spoke about William’s disappearance after September 12 “several times”. He said on one occasion he commented when police were searching Bill Spedding’s property that “they were searching in the wrong spot”. He said he found it “strange”.

He told the court on another occasion he spoke about “the smell” and when Mr Anderson suggested it could be a dead kangaroo, he claimed Abbott responded “I know the difference between a dead kangaroo and a dead human smell”.

Sherie Hamilton

Ms Anderson’s daughter Sherie Hamilton is now on the stand. She told the court Abbott used to talk about the William Tyrrell case “a lot” and “I would say he was interested”.

Elizabeth Rowley

Local woman Elizabeth Rowley is now on the stand. She owned an antiques shop around late 2013 and 2014 both in Kendall and then in nearby Kew. She told the court Abbott came in on “six to eight” occasions to sell her antiques but she never bought any.

She told the court on one occasion he came to her shop in a white station wagon to show her some items.

Ms Rowley told the court another local man, Iris Northam’s husband, came into her shop and said Abbott was upset because he’d driven a “woman and a little boy” to Tamworth and hadn’t been paid. Mr Northam told her he was concerned it was “related to William Tyrrell”.

She told the court Mr Northam wanted her to tell her husband about his concerns because he’s a police officer, which she did. The court has now adjourned for the day.

 

[interested64]

The court heard one of Jones’ neighbours was Frank Abbott’s son-in-law, but Jones told the court they didn’t know each other back then, later crossing paths in jail. Abbott is also a person of interest in the case.

..so this means Mickey blue eyes met TJ in prison..i wonder what he was in for

 

[madoodi]

Thanks Tinker

I do question the validity of RC's sighting of WT after this tranche of the inquest.
He didn't mention it to his family for a year!
And after hearing Ms Lee testify, and her saying her son was in fact in his Spiderman suit that day. And when she was asked if it was possible her child was unrestrained her answer was not a clear NO.
So I may be wrong, but the credibility of RC's testimony is now, IMO, questionable.

JMO