Foster parents of William Tyrrell are accused of bribing someone to attend an auction and place phony bids on a house.
The pair, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, will appear in court in October on one count each of dishonestly gaining financial benefit by fraud, according to NSW Police, who confirmed this to Daily Mail Australia.
The allegations have nothing to do with their missing foster kid, a three-year-old boy who was last seen in 2014 in a Spider-Man costume in the backyard of his foster grandmother’s house in Kendall on the NSW mid-north coast.
A 55-year-old male and a 56-year-old woman received Future Court Attendance Notices (FCAN) from investigators with Strike Force Rosann, according to a statement from the police.
The two are accused of organizing a third party to place a fictitious bid on a property at an auction in December 2020.
The maximum sentence for dishonestly using deceit to acquire financial benefit is 10 years in jail.
On Thursday, October 20, they will stand trial at Hornsby Local Court.
Detectives are still looking into William’s puzzling disappearance eight years after the alleged kidnapping shook the country.
William had been given the couple’s automobile in March 2012 and was brought to his foster grandmother’s Kendall residence on Friday, September 11, 2014, for a little vacation.
On a Saturday morning, he was last saw playing on the porch of the remote home on a dead-end street.
Numerous thorough searches of the region failed to turn up any signs of him.
A fresh, thorough search for William’s remains in the little town started in November of last year.
A portion of woodland less than a kilometer from the residence where William disappeared was dug up over the course of four weeks late last year by police, SES, rural fire personnel, and investigators from Strike Force Rosann.
Police combed through the underbrush and dug with excavators along Batar Creek Road in search of William’s body and pieces of the Spider-Man outfit he was last seen wearing.
No one has ever been charged in relation to William’s disappearance, and the foster mother and father have denied any participation.
In a separate case, the foster parents of the little child appeared in court in November and entered a not guilty plea for abusing a ten-year-old girl.
In June, William’s foster mother appeared in court on charges that she kicked and struck the child with a wooden spoon, inflicting “pain and bruises.”
Additionally, her colleague was charged with grasping the girl by the neck in order to subdue her.
The foster mother’s request to have her allegations heard was denied due to mental health issues.
Major depressive illness and post-traumatic stress disorder were identified as the foster mother’s diagnoses in a forensic psychology report submitted to the court (PTSD).
The pair was prosecuted in April for willfully providing false or misleading information to a NSW Crime Commission hearing over the disappearance of William Tyrrell.