EXCLUSIVE
An elderly man once considered the prime suspect in the William Tyrrell case has criticized the former head of the investigation for failing to find the boy or his killer.
Paul Savage, 80, still lives opposite the house in Kendall, on the New South Wales north coast, where the three-year-old boy disappeared without a trace 10 years ago.
But he believes he knows what happened to the boy and mocked former lead detective Gary Jubelin for ruling out possible suspects.
Jubelin was the commander of the investigation when he mistakenly named Mr. Savage as his prime suspect in William’s kidnapping and murder.
The former detective chief inspector was later convicted of illegally recording a conversation with Savage after he resigned from the New South Wales Police.
Savage has since been exonerated and this week mocked the former detective when he told Daily Mail Mail Australia: “Well, he’s a convicted criminal now, isn’t he?”
Jubelin now runs the podcast I Catch Killers, and in another podcast he shared details of a mysterious local man who had created a sanctuary for the missing boy.
Savage also recalled the resident whose behavior was branded “highly suspicious” on the podcast, but the pensioner dismissed his concerns.
“Yeah, that old guy who lived rough on the other side (of the property where William disappeared),” Savage told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday.
Paul Savage, once the prime suspect in the William Tyrrell case and who lives across the street from where the boy disappeared, has been completely exonerated and says he believes he knows what happened to the missing boy.
William Tyrrell (left) has been missing for a decade and the former lead detective in charge of his case, Gary Jubelin (right), has attacked the police who took charge of the investigative task force.
‘I had some photos of William, but I’m not suggesting he had anything to do with it at all. Jubelin was in charge, why didn’t he investigate it instead of attacking me?
‘He failed, but now he came out and said that if he was still leading the strike force, would he have solved it? Ha!
‘Jubelin was always too close to (one of the suspects), and what exactly did he solve? Tyrell? No, that other one? No.
‘He talks the talk, but he can’t walk the walk. It will probably never be fixed now.
“And that’s all we want: for William’s case to be solved.”
The new podcast claimed this week that the man Savage said was living rough, “who had some pictures of William, but he was gone,” was never properly investigated.
The podcast interviews Jubelin and criticizes the work done by Strike Force Rosann on the case since the DCI left the police in 2019.
Paul Savage (above, interviewed by Gary Jubelin, who was later convicted of illegally recording Savage) fears that the William Tyrrell case has been so mishandled that it may never be solved.
Paul Savage, now 80, still remembers the morning in 2014 when William disappeared and helped search in vain in the bushes around Benaroon Drive for the three-year-old boy.
Jubelin resigned after being removed from Strike Force Rosann’s investigation into William’s disappearance, and handed in his resignation before he was accused of illegally recording four conversations with Savage.
He was convicted and lost an appeal against his conviction, and then co-wrote a book with Dan Box three years later about the case, Badness.
In the 2022 book, Jubelin mocked the efforts of the strike force detectives, insisting that he had already proven what they were doing.
He added that unearthing fabric in a high-profile police dig in Kendall in 2021 was useless because everything had been done before.
Jubelin organized media tours, dressed in his trademark black suit, white shirt and skinny black tie, at the Tyrrell investigation.
Detectives inside Paul Savage’s home across the street from where William was last seen, after Kendall’s neighbor was mistakenly targeted for being a possible suspect in the boy’s alleged death.
Former detective Jubelin, above in his trademark black suit, on a tour of a police search in Kendall in 2018 for the remains of missing boy William Tyrrell.
In Badness, Jubelin ridiculed his successor, Detective Chief Inspector David Laidlaw’s filmed tour of the Kendall locations, calling it “a piece of B-grade television”.
This week, pressure on DCI Laidlaw resumed via Box’s William Tyrrell’s new podcast, Witness, claiming the top cop had prioritized investigating the boy’s disappearance while leaving aside 19 other unsolved cases for a year .
After preparing Tyrrell’s report for the NSW Coroner’s Inquiry in March 2019, Gary Jubelin was removed as head of the taskforce the same month and resigned from the NSW Police Force two months later.
Mr Savage was called as a witness and cross-examined in court by counsel assisting Gerard Craddock. Police have since cleared him of any suspicion or wrongdoing.
The man who has William’s shrine was never included as a witness in the brief, and criticism has since been raised about the different treatment given to people in the investigation.
Current Strike Force Commander, Detective Chief Inspector David Laidlaw (grey shirt, centre) with police officers at the William Tyrrell excavation site on Batar Creek Road, Kendall in 2021
The last known photo taken of William Tyrrell on the morning he disappeared from the terrace of his adoptive grandmother’s home on Benaroon Drive, Kendall, on September 12, 2014.
Since William’s disappearance, police have identified approximately 700 persons of interest, conducted hundreds of interviews and collected more than 4,000 pieces of evidence.
The investigation into the disappearance and suspected death of William is now scheduled to resume, with New South Wales coroner Harriet Graham holding another block of hearings. starting November 4 and December 16, and she transmit its findings at a later date.