William Tyrrell’s foster mum pleads with police to ‘focus on finding William’

The foster mother of missing toddler, William Tyrrell, has delivered an emotional plea to police to “focus on finding William” and finally determine “what happened to him”.

William vanished from his foster grandmother’s house in New South Wales on September 12, 2014. He had been playing in the front yard of the property in Kendall, and was wearing a Spider-Man suit at the time of his disappearance.

“Her Honour has given a detailed judgment today about the circumstances surrounding this charge being brought against me,” William’s foster mother told reporters.

“She’s found me not guilty of lying to the crime commission. With this behind me, I hope that police focus on finding William and what happened to him.”

Her comments follow her appearance at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court where she was found not guilty of providing false or misleading evidence to the NSW Crime Commission.

Police alleged that the 57-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, lied when she told the Crime Commission that she did not strike a child in her care.

The child in the matter wasn’t William Tyrrell.

Magistrate Miranda Moody handed down her verdict on Friday, November 4,  finding the woman not guilty of knowingly giving false or misleading evidence.

Despite the court resolving the matter, a number of bombshell statements were made during the hearing related to the disappearance of William Tyrrell and the long-running investigation that remains ongoing.

On Thursday, November 4, a senior detective working on the William Tyrrell investigation delivered the stunning claim that the three-year-old’s foster mother allegedly knows where he is buried.

“I’ve formed the view that (the foster mother) knows where William Tyrrell is,” Detective Sergeant Andrew Lonergan told the court.

Defence barrister John Stratton SC rejected the claims before suggesting that police charged William’s foster mother with allegedly lying to the Crime Commission to “pressure her”.

“Our main objective is to find out where William Tyrrell is,” Lonergan replied.

Later in the hearing, the court was provided with details of a heated exchange where allegations were made by detectives that William’s foster mother knew what happened to the missing toddler.

“You will have to live with it. Today is the day you make a decision for William,” police reportedly said at the time of the conversation.

“We understand decisions have been made for different people for different reasons.

“We aren’t guessing, we aren’t bluffing. We know why, we know how. We know where he is.”

Detective Sergeant Andrew Lonergan told the court that William’s foster mother allegedly responded “what?” to the allegations.

Despite extensive investigations into William Tyrrell’s disappearance, the three-year-old has never been found.

William’s foster mother has denied any involvement or wrongdoing in regard to the toddler’s disappearance and has not been charged in relation to the disappearance.