William Spedding cited malicious prosecution, wrongful imprisonment and abuse of process
William Spedding, former chief suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old William Tyrrell, is suing the state of NSW for aggravated damages.
The 70-year-old claimed that police charged him with unrelated child sex offences in a bid to bolster the case against him. In a Supreme Court hearing before Justice Ian Harrison last week, Spedding sought damages for malicious prosecution, wrongful imprisonment and abuse of process by NSW police and the director of public prosecutions, ABC News reported.
Spedding became the sole person of interest in the Tyrrell case in early 2015; five days before the boy vanished on 12 September 2014, Spedding had visited the home of Tyrrell’s foster grandmother in northern NSW to repair a washing machine. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Spedding was subjected to a six-hour interview regarding Tyrrell’s disappearance in January 2015, where investigators told him they were “going to ruin [him]”.
Three months after the interview, Spedding was charged with sexually assaulting two children in 1987 – charges he was later acquitted of. Spedding’s barrister, Adrian Canceri, told the Supreme Court that the 1987 allegations had already been investigated and dismissed that same year after it was found that the children were coached into making statements against Spedding.
“The evidence will overwhelmingly demonstrate that the criminal proceedings were used as a vehicle to further the investigation of the plaintiff as a suspect in the disappearance of William Tyrrell, and to punish him for his suspected involvement,” Canceri told the court.
In a statement published by the Herald, the barrister added that “without the criminal proceedings, [Spedding] was simply a person of interest. With the criminal proceedings, he became the likely perpetrator.”
Spedding told the court the investigation had caused him to suffer heightened anxiety and bouts of low moods in the years since, as well as to experience difficulty concentrating. During the hearing, the court heard several abusive messages left on Spedding’s answering machine in 2015 and 2016, including multiple death threats.
Canceri told the court that, given the severe and long-lasting impact on Spedding’s quality of life, the case for aggravated damages is “at the absolute highest end of the scale,” the Herald reported.
The hearing before Harrison is expected to continue for two more weeks.
