William Tyrrell’s foster mother has pleaded guilty to two charges of assaulting an 11-year-old girl.
The 58-year-old admitted to two common assault charges at the beginning of a five-day court hearing into allegations of violence against the young girl over an eight month period, between January and October 2021.
However, the foster mother pleaded not guilty to two separate charges of stalking and intimidating the child.
The girl is due to testify via recorded evidence during a week-long trial at Parramatta Local Court in Sydney’s west.
Police allege the mother threatened to rub her face in her own excrement while her foster father allegedly grabbed her by the neck after the girl said she ‘hated’ them.
Police claimed the woman caused the girl ‘pain and bruising’, and also hit the then 11-year-old with a wooden spoon.
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.
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
The foster couple also allegedly subjected the girl to a 15-minute ‘tirade of verbal abuse’ as she pleaded with them to stop.
She later told a teacher she was afraid to go back to the house, police will allege.
The child had been placed in a 44-minute time-out period in November 2021 and had then told the couple, known by the pseudonyms SD and JS, that she ‘hated them’.
Appearing before Magistrate Susan McIntyre on Monday, the foster mother pleaded guilty to common assault but not guilty to two charges of stalking and intimidating the girl, which relate to incidents between January and August 2021.
The foster father maintained pleas of not guilty to one count of common assault and one of stalk and intimidate.
A large group of detectives from Strike Force Rosann, which is investigating the disappearance of William Tyrrell attended court, including the task force commander Detective Chief Inspector David Laidlaw.
The foster mother, known as SD, and the foster father, known as JS, had been ‘attempting to intervene in the (alleged) victim’s problematic behaviour’.
William’s female foster carer had told 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.’
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
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’.
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’.
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
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.
In 2022, they were charged with two counts and one count of stalking and intimidation intending fear of physical harm against a child.
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 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.