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William Tyrrell’s adoptive parents were found guilty of bullying another child.
The foster mother, 58, was found guilty of two occasions of bullying, but cleared of any other interactions, after earlier admitting two assault charges.
William’s adoptive father, 56, was convicted of intimidation but acquitted of assault charges after pleading not guilty to both charges.
The charges stem from 1,000 hours of secret audio recording captured by police surveillance devices placed in the couple’s car and home over 14 months.
William Tyrrell’s adoptive parents found guilty of bullying another child
The child, aged 10 to 11 at the time of the allegations, was removed from the couple’s home in November 2021, shortly before the charges were filed.
There is no indication that the charges are linked to the disappearance of William Tyrrell, nor that the two men are accused of wrongdoing against him.
Magistrate Susan McIntyre told the court that although the adoptive father had used physical force to impose a 44-minute time-out, it amounted to a lawful use of force.
Police had alleged the 56-year-old placed his hands around the girl’s throat following interviews with the homicide squad and child protective services.
Ms McIntyre instead sided with solicitor Phillip English’s claims that the man pushed the child down after telling the couple she was going to leave.
Conversely, Ms McIntyre found the man’s actions during an earlier argument in late 2020 inside the adoptive father’s car constituted a criminal offence.
The court heard the foster father swore and yelled at the child, causing her to cry loudly as he walked to school in an interaction captured on police audio.
The foster father could be heard in the audio telling the child “every f*****g day” and later to “move, f*****g, move”, before furiously driving to school .
“The defense argues that these were the fleeting words of a frustrated parent… Although it is not necessary to prove that they were afraid, his ‘groan’ speaks for itself,” a- she declared.
The audio further captured the adoptive mother’s admitted allegations that on several occasions she kicked and hit the child with a wooden spoon.
William Tyrrell disappeared from Kendall, New South Wales, in 2014, aged three.
Friday’s judgment instead focused on two allegations of bullying that covered six separate cases over the 14 months the house was bugged.
Ms McIntyre questioned the police prosecutor’s claims that an argument over the child’s bedroom in January 2021 amounted to criminal intimidation.
The court heard the woman told the child “you don’t have a voice until I tell you”, but that the comments stemmed from comments about the state of the room.
Similar arguments have been the subject of other bullying allegations, including over the dishwasher, but Ms McIntyre said she lacked context in relation to the situation.
She described the dynamic as no different than a normal family and the complainant’s actions were indicative of a frustrated and defiant young child.
The adoptive mother testified to police that the home environment was tense and all she “did was walk away when it turned into screaming” with the child.
The woman was ultimately found guilty of two counts of criminal intimidation relating to threats to slap the child during heated arguments between the two men.
After one instance, the woman later told the child, “I shouldn’t have to get to the point where I have to threaten to hurt you, it’s a huge problem.”
William Tyrrell disappeared from his adoptive grandparents’ home in Kendall, on the NSW mid-north coast, in September 2014, sparking the state’s largest ever manhunt.
Nearly a decade later, police are apparently no closer to finding the missing child and have yet to charge anyone in connection with the three-year-old’s disappearance.
The couple will return to court on March 27 to hear the sentence.