William Tyrrell’s foster mother admits assaulting girl, 11 – as details emerge in court about allegations against her and her ex-husband
William Tyrrell’s foster mother has pleaded guilty to two charges of assaulting an 11-year-old girl.
The 58-year-old admitted at the start of a five-day hearing on two common charges of violence against the young girl over an eight-month period in 2021.
The foster mother entered two pleas not guilty to two charges of stalking and harassing the child.
The girl will testify through recorded evidence at a week-long trial at Sydney’s Parramatta Local Court.
Police allege the mother threatened to rub her face in her own feces, while her foster father reportedly grabbed her by the neck after the girl said she “hated” them.
Police claimed the woman had caused the girl “pain and bruises” and had also beaten the then 11-year-old with a wooden spoon.
William’s foster father allegedly “grabbed” the girl by the neck and “physically restrained her from sitting down again” in the kitchen of a suburban home.
William Tyrrell’s foster mother (pictured) pleaded guilty to two counts of common assault in Parramatta’s local court on Monday. The charge involved a young child, who is not William
The foster couple also allegedly subjected the girl to a 15-minute “rant of verbal abuse” as she begged them to stop.
She later told a teacher she was afraid to go back home, police will claim.
The child had been placed in a 44-minute time-out period in November 2021 and had subsequently told the couple, known by the pseudonyms SD and JS, that she “hated them.”
The foster mother appeared before Magistrate Susan McIntyre on Monday and pleaded guilty to common assault but not guilty to two charges of stalking and harassing the girl, which relate to incidents between January and August 2021.
The foster father continued to maintain that he was not guilty of one charge of common assault and one charge of stalking and harassment.
A large group of Detectives from Strike Force Rosann, investigating the disappearance of William Tyrrell, came to court, including the task force’s commander, Detective Superintendent David Laidlaw.
William Tyrrell (above) disappeared in September 2014 aged three from the NSW Mid North Coast town of Kendall and no trace of the toddler has ever been found
The foster mother, nickname SD, and the foster father, nickname JS, had ‘tried to intervene in the problematic behavior of the (alleged) victim’.
William’s female foster carer had told the girl that if she pooped on the floor she would rub her face in it, it is said.
Police will claim that when the child cried out in pain, the SD then “forced the child to sit on the floor for an extended period of time before kicking the (alleged) victim, causing her pain and bruising.”
“The (alleged) victim would have tried to get up a number of times, but (SD) forced her to sit down.”
A post-event psychological report alleges that the child “begged” SD to stop, while the two defendants allegedly subjected her to a fifteen-minute “rant of verbal abuse.”
However, the defendants’ attorneys filed objections with at least one psychological expert, Dr. Banks, at the beginning of the five-day hearing.
The alleged victim spoke to her school teacher and “expressed her fear of returning home.”
The foster father was in court with his wife, charged with the alleged assault and stalking or harassment of a child
The foster mother (above in Kendall after William disappeared) appears before the local Parramatta court on charges of assault and stalking a child
SD and her husband JS were charged with common assault against the girl in late 2021, when police launched a new search in the bushland near the NSW Mid North Coast town of Kendall for the remains of William Tyrrell.
In 2022, they were charged with two counts and one count of stalking and harassment with intent to physically harm a child.
They have also filed guilty pleas against charges of using a bogus bidder to raise the sale price of their former ‘forever home’ for missing William on Sydney’s North Shore at a 2020 auction.
The charges have been relegated to regulatory offenses under the Property and Stock Agents Act and the pair will be convicted and fined this week.
William disappeared in September 2014 aged three in the NSW Mid North Coast town of Kendall and no trace of the toddler has ever been found.
No one has ever been charged with his disappearance.
In late 2021, another search was conducted in bushland within 700 meters of the Kendall home where William was last seen, but no items of significance have been identified.