William Tyrrell’s adoptive mother broke down in court during the broadcast of a recording of the moment she hit an 11-year-old girl with a wooden spoon.
The harrowing audio recording shows the adoptive mother, known only as SD, telling the daughter to fetch the wooden spoon, followed by a crack as the daughter is hit.
Then the couple can be heard in a subsequent phone call, with the adoptive mother telling the adoptive father that they had a problem because the assault had “left a mark”.
The audio was played at Parramatta Local Court on Tuesday afternoon.
Tyrrell’s adoptive mother can be heard punching the girl, before she lets out a series of anguished cries of “help me.”
SD then says the girl to “shut up”.
The foster mother cried and hugged the foster father during the broadcast of the 30-minute recording, which stemmed from an overnight standoff between the girl and the foster parents after some of the child’s clothes and toys were confiscated .
The adoptive mother of William Tyrrell (centre) – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – was tried on Tuesday alongside the missing boy’s adoptive father.
The assault, to which the adoptive mother pleaded guilty, occurred on January 26, 2021.
The recording was made after SD complained that the girl had “lost $120 worth of clothes” and had “over a thousand dollars worth of toys”.
SD later told a friend that she had “emptied” the girl’s room, “taken out her toys” and reduced her to a few pairs of clothes, telling the friend, “I feel terrible. .. but I have to do it, II have to break it.
In the tape, at the sight of the cleared room, the young girl sobs and first shouts to the couple: “you have ruined everything”. You took everything and I don’t know where it is.
Then she said, “Please help me, I need help. I need help. Hello, I need help. Please I need help.
She then bursts into anguished sobs and shouts, “Please help me. You are not allowed to do this to me. I need help. I need help. I need help. I need help. I just need help. I just need a little help. I just need a little help.’
On the recording, the young girl can be heard moving and she says, “I have the iPad upstairs. I call’.
We hear the movement, then the cries of anguish of the young girl, the sobs and the adoptive mother who says to her “Get up, get up, get away from the screen”, telling her to move her hands before she is hit with the wooden spoon.
The young girl then launches into a series of nine long and endless “Noooo” sentences.
It was then that the adoptive mother broke down and cried and her lawyer asked for a short break, which Magistrate McIntyre granted.
In a later audio recording, the adoptive mother tells the daughter that if she hears any additional sound coming from her that evening, SD will come up to the daughter’s room and take away her meal.
“You seem to think you can control me, that you control the situation. You can’t, you never will,” SD says.
In a later phone call, SD tells the adoptive father that following the wooden spoon incident, which left a mark, the girl locked her out of the house.
JS replies, “We have a problem, a big problem,” to which SD replies, “We have a huge problem.”
In a later recording, SD also tells the girl that just because “you can’t defend yourself at school” doesn’t mean the 11-year-old can pressure SD.
Many disturbing recordings were played in court showing the 11-year-old screaming and sobbing inconsolably as William Tyrrell’s adoptive parents yelled at and berated her.
Sydney’s Parramatta Local Court on Tuesday released 15 car and home recordings in which the missing boy’s foster parents have heated exchanges with the schoolgirl whose foster mother pleaded guilty to assault.
In an audio recording, a seemingly enraged adoptive father yells at the girl in a car as ABC radio’s morning news plays in the background. It starts: “Every fucking day!
“Close the front door. Move, fuck, move! We’re done with this game. I’ve moved on. Out. This is fucking ridiculous. I’m sick of it. It’s really stupid.’
As the child’s sobs continue, the adoptive father says, “I’m done with this. You don’t understand, you do this every day. Every day!’
“Don’t lose your shit now,” he says as louder sobs are heard.
In a recorded exchange with the young girl, the adoptive mother said to her: “Look at me. The next time you answer me, it’ll hit your ass.
A loud clicking noise, even if it is not a clicking noise, is then heard.
In another recording, during an argument over the girl’s clothes, the adoptive mother shouts, “Keep going, keep going, I’ll outlast you, you won’t beat me for this.”
“Look at me, I’m stronger. I will survive you. Keep going, I’ll go higher, I’ll go stronger. Your choice.’
The adoptive mother cried and hugged the adoptive father (the couple pictured above) as a poignant sound was played in court where she hit the 11-year-old girl with a wooden spoon, then told her to ‘shut up as the child sobbed and asked for help
As a recording of the girl sobbed and moaned loudly was played, the adoptive mother smiled at the adoptive father in court, then dabbed a rolled-up handkerchief at the corner of each eye.
The recordings currently being broadcast are from November 2020 and January 2021.
In one of the recordings, the foster mother says to the 11-year-old in a loud, shrill tone, “Listen to me. Do what I say, not what you want. Not your position. My position.
“You will do it MY WAY. »
On January 26, 2021, during an argument about the girl having too many clothes, while a radio was playing in the background, SD told the girl, “Shut up, you don’t have not allowed to speak, you have absolutely nothing to say. Zero.’
When the girl reacts and says while shouting “I hate you”, SD responds. “You do what we tell you to do. NO means no.
Both adoptive parents also appear to challenge or chastise the young girl for apparently telling a school friend what was going on at home.
The adoptive mother tells the daughter that if what she said (to her school friend) and that friend “tells her mother, her mother should report it… (that) another girl at school was bullied by her parents blah blah blah blah blah.
She said to the girl, “You were never in a situation where you couldn’t tell me anything… you were always able to tell me.
“You have to keep telling me. And it doesn’t matter if you’re in trouble, if anybody’s in trouble, you have to tell me.
“Have you told anyone else?”
The cop takes the helm
The tapes are released after the officer in charge of the investigation, Senior Detective Constable Sean Ogilvy, took the stand on Monday morning.
Police planned to release recordings of up to four hours of evidence taped from homes and vehicles in relation to allegations of assault, stalking and intimidation against the missing youth’s adoptive parents.
The adoptive mother of William Tyrrell faces the second day of her trial with the adoptive father for stalking and assault after pleading guilty to two charges of hitting and kicking an 11-year-old girl.
The 58-year-old pleaded guilty at the start of a five-day court hearing into allegations of abuse against the girl.
The offenses involve the adoptive mother kicking the girl and hitting her with a wooden spoon during confrontations with the elementary school student over a cell phone and after the child told the adoptive parents “I hate you”.
The adoptive parents of missing baby William Tyrrell (above) are accused of assaulting, stalking and bullying a primary-aged schoolgirl in 2021 in a series of incidents between January and August
The officer in charge of the case, Senior Detective Constable Sean Ogilvy, appeared on the stand as disturbing tapes were played in court.
After the two guilty pleas, the adoptive mother failed in the face of her lawyer’s attempt to have the five-day trial held in secret and closed to the public and the media.
The adoptive parents, named in court SD (the adoptive mother) and JS (the adoptive father), are charged with common assault against a child and with stalking, intimidating and causing fear of physical or mental harm against a child between the ‘Australia Day 2021 and 30 August 2021.
The offenses allegedly took place at two different residences on Sydney’s north shore.
The adoptive mother maintained her plea of not guilty to two separate charges of harassment and intimidation of the young girl.
William disappeared aged three in September 2014 in the town of Kendall on the NSW north coast, and no trace of the toddler has ever been found.
No one has ever been charged for her disappearance.
A further search of bushland within 700m of the Kendall house where William was last seen was conducted in late 2021, but no significant items were identified.
