A detective has told a court that William’s former foster mother knows where the child is.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared in court on Thursday and was charged with lying to the NSW Crime Commission.
William went missing in 2014 when he was three years old.
During a hearing at the Sydney District Court, detective Andrew Lonergan said that the woman knew where William was when he disappeared in 2014 and that she had lied to the commission about not striking another child with a wooden spoon. But her lawyer, John Stratton, said that was not true.
The police charged the woman for lying in order to get her to confess, which her lawyer John Stratton said was an attempt to break her spirit.
According to the police, audio recordings from devices in her home showed that she had hit a child with a wooden spoon.
The recordings, which were played in court, showed the child repeatedly threatening to call the police. The woman then said that the child had to “stand up” three times.
The child pleaded and cried, and she was told to move her hands before smacking noises could be heard.
In one of the calls intercepted by the police, the woman can be heard telling her husband “She’s still going on about it.”
The hearing continues.