On Monday, ABC TV’s Four Corners program will reveal how a man was wrongly accused in the William Tyrrell investigation.
William Tyrrell disappearance leads to suspicion falling on Bill Spedding
Bill Spedding, a washing machine repairman, faced accusations of abducting three-year-old William Tyrrell. The little boy disappeared on 12 September, 2014 from the front yard of a family home in Kendall, on New South Wales’ mid-north coast. No trace of William has shown up in the five years since.
After police treated William’s disappearance as a missing person case, they named Spedding as a “person of interest” in the investigation. However, evidence heard at a recent coronial inquest revealed Spedding was with his wife having coffee about the time the boy went missing.
Alibi proves Spedding could not have been involved
“The way in which they investigated Bill Spedding was fraught,” said his lawyer Peter O’Brien, of O’Brien Criminal and Civil Solicitors.
“The public is entitled to know what went wrong with this investigation.”
Despite the key elements of his alibi finally proven, Spedding tells Four Corners his life is “shattered” from the police’s handling of the case, and the subsequent media scrutiny he endured.
Suing the NSW Police Force
Spedding recently filed a lawsuit in the New South Wales Supreme Court, accusing NSW Police of misfeasance in public office, abuse of process and malicious prosecution.
O’Brien Criminal and Civil Solicitors are expert in the practice area of suing the police, prosecutors and other authorities for abuses of their powers. If you believe that you or someone that you know may have been victim of any of these abuses of power, please contact us.
Tune in to ABC TV on Monday 4 November 2019 at 8.30pm for the exclusive Four Corners report.
You can see the Four Corners report here:
