Watch the intense police interrogation of Bill Spedding over the William Tyrrell abduction

Updated

Almost six hours into an intense grilling inside a small police station room, a detective investigating missing child William Tyrrell turned to Bill Spedding and uttered the words that would throw his life into chaos.

"We believe that you may have grabbed William … from the front yard of that address and you may have left the area without anyone knowing," Detective Justin Moynihan told him.

It was the moment police revealed to Bill Spedding, a whitegoods repairman, their belief that he had abducted three-year-old William Tyrrell, who several months earlier had disappeared from outside his foster grandmother's home in Kendall on the NSW mid-north coast.

The interrogation, obtained exclusively by Four Corners, began shortly after the Spedding home was raided in front of the media in January 2015, instantly turning Mr Spedding into the highest profile person of interest in the case.

Mr Spedding had been to the foster grandmother's house to fix a washing machine three days before William Tyrrell disappeared. He was due to return to complete the job after parts were delivered.

During the police interview, Detective Justin Moynihan accused Mr Spedding of returning to the home on Friday, September 12, 2014 and taking the little boy.

Mr Spedding had already told police that on the morning William disappeared he was 20 minutes away, visiting a local cafe and attending a primary school assembly to watch his grandchild receive an award.

Detective: "You were there to fix that washing machine." Bill Spedding: "No." Detective: "But perhaps you didn't make it to the house because as we know William Tyrrell was wandering the front yard of his grandmother's house … on his own. He had no supervision by any parent at that time for a few minutes. We know that. Bill: "I wasn't there." Detective: "We believe you were there." Bill: "I wasn't there." Detective: "We believe that perhaps you may have seen William." Bill: "No, I never seen him. Never met him."

Four Corners can reveal that the detective leading the interview, Justin Moynihan, has been removed from the homicide squad pending an internal police investigation which is not related to the William Tyrrell case.

"An internal investigation is currently underway and we are unable to provide any further comment at this time," a police spokeswoman said.

"The officer was moved to administrative duties pending the outcome of the investigation and is currently on extended leave."

Earlier this year, the former lead detective in the William Tyrrell case, Gary Jubelin, was removed from the investigation and has been charged with illegally recording another person of interest in the case.

He strongly denies any wrongdoing. He pleaded not guilty and is due to face trial next year.

Mr Jubelin took over the investigation in February 2015, after Mr Spedding had been publicly identified as a person of interest.

'Did you take William Tyrrell?'

During the January 2015 interview, Detective Moynihan asks Mr Spedding: "Did you take William Tyrrell?" to which Mr Spedding replies: "No".

Detective: Do you know who took William Tyrrell? Bill: No. Detective: Do you know anything about William Tyrrell? Bill: Nothing at all, other than what I've read in the paper and heard in the media and then seen his photo on Facebook. Detective: Do you know where William Tyrrell is right now? Bill: No.

During the interview, detectives accused Mr Spedding of deleting the record of a phone call made to his mobile by William Tyrrell's foster mother a few hours before the child disappeared.

Mr Spedding protested his innocence, arguing that he didn't believe such a record could be deleted.

"If a fellow was guilty, I could well see why someone would break. It was intense. It just got really, really intense from that point onwards," Mr Spedding said.

Mr Spedding's lawyer Peter O'Brien said he later discovered police were wrong about Mr Spedding's mobile phone.

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"We naturally enough sent the material to an expert who confirmed that because he was on a telephone call at the time the message was received on the handset, it would not have been recorded on the handset," Mr O'Brien said.

"There was an innocent explanation as to the message not being there, rather than it having been deleted. Then that was something that was erroneously put to him. It was based on a falsehood and ought to have been checked thoroughly.

"It demonstrates a preconceived notion that he was responsible for the disappearance of the child. It demonstrates that they had no other thought of open objectivity to the investigation that they were conducting in relation to him."

After six hours, Mr Spedding was released without charge.

His home was still designated a crime scene, so police drove him to a relative's house.

Mr Spedding said as he was being let out of the car, Detective Moynihan turned around and said to him: "We know you did it. We're going to get you. I'm going to come and arrest you," and I said, "I haven't done anything. What are you talking about?"

Mr Spedding's alibi was corroborated this year at the coronial inquest by a parent who said he saw Mr Spedding at the school assembly.

Mr Spedding and Mr O'Brien believe the police focus on him came at the expense of other more promising leads.

Abductor of William likely a loner: retired detective

No trace of William has ever been found and the case remains unsolved.

Retired Queensland detective Dennis Martyn — who was instrumental in solving the case of abducted and murdered Queensland boy Daniel Morcombe — said the fact that the $1 million reward has never been claimed offers a clue about what type of person might have taken William.

"What it tells me is that the person is alone, the person generally would not be socially active," he said.

"It would tell me that the person doesn't have a great variety of friends that they confide in. They don't have a lot of people around to their house. Because otherwise people will see things, otherwise people will hear things."

Mr Martyn said if that is the case, it is extremely unlikely that the case will ever be solved.

"If the individual has acted alone, has not been seen, there is no forensic evidence to place that person there, or no forensic evidence left to link that person to William, in any way," he said.

"If that person either dies, or does not say a word and he is the sole keeper of the information, I could not see how you could solve it."

A NSW police spokeswoman said it was "not appropriate to comment" given that the matter was subject to an ongoing coronial inquest and an investigation.



Watch the full investigation on ABC iview.

Topics: law-crime-and-justice, crime, missing-person, police, kendall-2439, nsw, australia

First posted