William Tyrrell’s foster mother has pleaded guilty to two charges of assaulting an 11-year-old girl.
The 58-year-old entered the plea at the beginning of a five-day court hearing into allegations of violence against the young girl.
The foster parents are accused of common assault against a child and stalk, intimidate and cause fear of physical or mental harm against a child between Australia Day 2021 and August 30, 2021.
The offences allegedly occurred at two different Sydney North Shore residences.
The foster mother maintained pleas of not guilty to two separate charges of stalking and intimidating the young girl.
The girl is due to testify via pre-recorded evidence during a week-long trial at Parramatta Local Court in Sydney’s west.
The court heard about heated verbal exchanges between the child and allegedly about a recording of the then primary schoolgirl being smacked.
Defence barrister John Stratton SC argued that repeated incidents, including a threatened warning by the foster mother that if the child continued to behave badly ‘she would slap her’ was just ‘lawful chastisement, it’s not a criminal activity’.
He said if a threat by a parent to issue a child with a smacking was deemed criminal ‘that would criminalise every household in Australia’.
He said a reference in a recording to a ‘smack, smack smack, could have been a recording of ‘someone I the family striking a desk’.
But Police Prosecutor Detective Chief Inspector John Marsh said the ‘smack, smack, smack’ was only clear that it was a recording, and the multiple incidents and alleged threats was ‘certainly not what (happened in) every household in Australia’
He said there was an incident in which the child used a phone without permission, and then called the foster mother ‘a f***ing b***h’.
‘It is the cumulative effect of all these incidents to show that (the foster mother) knew her conduct was likely to cause fear but nonetheless continued.’
William Tyrrell’s foster mother (pictured) pleaded guilty to two charges of common assault at Parramatta Local Court on Monday. The charges related to a young child, who is not William
Police allege the mother threatened the girl while her foster father allegedly grabbed her by the neck after the girl said she ‘hated’ them.
William’s foster father allegedly ‘grabbed’ the girl about the neck and ‘physically restrained her to sit back down’ in the kitchen of a suburban home.
She later told a teacher she was afraid to go back to the house, police will allege.
One one day in November 2021, the child had been placed in a 44-minute time-out period and had then told the couple, referred to before the court as SD and JS, that she ‘hated them’.
Attending the hearing was a large group of detectives from Strike Force Rosann, which is investigating the disappearance of William Tyrrell, including the task force commander Detective Chief Inspector David Laidlaw.
The court was told the foster mother had been ‘attempting to intervene in the (alleged) victim’s problematic behaviour’.
She warned the girl that if she were to defecate on the floor she would rub her face in it, it is alleged.
Police will allege that when the child screamed out in pain, SD ‘then forced the child to sit on the floor for an extended period of time before kicking the (alleged) victim and causing her pain and bruising.
‘The (alleged) victim is reported to have tried to get up a number of times but (SD) forced her to sit down.’
A psychological report after the event alleges the child was ‘pleading’ with SD to stop while the two defendants allegedly subjected her to a 15-minute ‘tirade of verbal abuse’.
William Tyrrell (above) disappeared aged three in September 2014 in the NSW Mid North Coast town of Kendall and no trace of the toddler has ever been found
However lawyers for the accused lodged an objection at the beginning of the five-day hearing to at least one psychological expert, Dr Banks.
The alleged victim spoke to her schoolteacher and ‘expressed being afraid to return home’.
SD and her husband JS were charged with common assault of the girl in late 2021, as police embarked on a new search of bushland near the NSW Mid North Coast town of Kendall for the remains of William Tyrrell.
They have also entered guilty pleas to charges of using a dummy bidder to increase the sale price of their former ‘forever home’ for missing William on Sydney’s North Shore at an auction in 2020.
The foster father faced court alongside his wife, charged with the alleged assault and stalking or intimidating of a child
The foster mother (above in Kendall after William vanished) is appearing in Parramatta Local Court on charges of assaulting and stalking a child
The charges were downgraded to regulatory offences under the Property and Stock Agents Act and the pair will be sentenced this week and fined.
William disappeared aged three in September 2014 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 over his disappearance.
A new search of bushland within 700m of the Kendall house where William was last seen was conducted in late 2021, but no items of significance have been identified.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk