On William Tyrell's 12th birthday, police remain tight-lipped on one theory
Associate Professor Xanthe Mallett interviewed by ABC News to discuss the case of William Tyrrell. William would have been 12 years old today, on the cusp of entering his teens and high school. Instead, he remains frozen in time — a cheeky three-year-old boy who loved Spider-man and drawing pictures.
Given the enormous public interest in William's case, University of Newcastle criminologist Xanthe Mallett said it was time police presented all their evidence publicly. "I don't think they should be delaying the inquest any further because the inquest is a fact-finding mission to try and find out what happened to William," she said. "They've been very vocal publicly in saying they believe certain people know what happened to William, but obviously that's a serious allegation to make and those people who have been accused have a right to know what that evidence is. "They have a right for that evidence to be heard and so do the public."
The new "lines of inquiry" detectives claimed to have unearthed prompted a massive new search of the area surrounding William's foster grandmother's house, where he was last seen, in late 2021. It then emerged, through background briefings to journalists by "police sources", their new theory was that William had died from an accidental fall from the balcony and his death was covered up. They told media they were "confident" this new search would finally lead to a breakthrough and bring closure to the case. But weeks of searching, once again, amounted to no major discoveries or arrests.
Dr Mallett said while police had not revealed what, if anything, was found, it was safe to assume there was no breakthrough. "I don't think anything probative was found during those searches, because if it had been, charges would have been laid," she said. They did, however, charge William's foster parents with a range of unrelated offences, including providing false and misleading information to the NSW Crime Commission and assaulting a child, who was not William. His foster mother has already been found not guilty of lying to the crime commission, while other charges are still awaiting court hearings.
Associate Professor Xanthe Mallett is affiliated with the University of Newcastle.
This article was originally published by ABC News. Read the full article here.
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