Inquest to probe William Tyrrell balcony fall theory as toddler missing 10 years on

The police theory that William Tyrrell died in an accidental fall is set to be probed when an inquest into the toddler’s disappearance resumes in a Sydney court on Monday.

William vanished from his foster grandmother’s home in Kendall on the NSW Mid North Coast on September 12, 2014.

A long-running inquest before Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame is examining the three-year-old’s disappearance and suspected death.

After long delays, the inquest is returning to the NSW Coroner’s Court at Lidcombe for what will be the final block of hearings in November and December.

THE POLICE THEORY

The inquest ran for 18 months before it was adjourned in October 2020 and Ms Grahame’s findings were due to be handed down in June 2021.

Before her findings could be made public, police began investigating a theory that William had died in an accidental fall from a balcony and the boy’s foster mother had hidden his body.

The foster mother - who cannot be named for legal reasons - has denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of how William went missing.

No charges relating to William’s disappearance have ever been laid.

Last year, police handed a brief of evidence to the Director of Public Prosecutions seeking advice on whether William’s foster mother could be charged with perverting the course of justice and interfering with a corpse.

In a letter previously tendered to the court, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Sally Dowling SC, said NSW Police had asked her office to “suspend” its request for advice until the conclusion of the inquest hearings.

The foster parents’ solicitor Rylie Hahn previously said the foster mother “maintains she had nothing to do with his disappearance … and asks the police to continue to look for William and what happened to him.”

In November 2022, the foster mother appeared in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court where she was found not guilty of lying to the NSW Crime Commission.

The court heard that the foster mother was hauled before the secretive crime commission and probed about William’s disappearance.

The court heard that during the Crime Commission hearing, counsel assisting Sophie Callan put the allegation to the foster mother that William died when he fell from the veranda of his foster grandmother’s home.

The court heard that the foster mother responded: “No, I would have found him.”

The foster mother also denied using the foster grandmother’s car to dispose of William’s body.

During the same local court hearing, Detective Sergeant Andrew Lonergan said he believed that William had been buried in an area on the corner of Batar Creek Rd and Cobb and Co Rd on the outskirts of Kendall.

Police, volunteers and detectives in late 2021 began a fresh dig for evidence in and around Kendall.

Teams scoured the garden of his foster grandmother’s home and nearby bushland.

Nothing was found.