‘Terrible nightmare’: Bill Spedding’s seven-year ordeal before $1.48 million payout

When Bill Spedding was charged with historical sex offences in 2015 by police investigating William Tyrrell’s disappearance, the community reaction was intense and hostile.

For three years, he received abusive messages and phone calls. He went for a blood test and a staff member told him to leave. A stranger asked him “are you Bill Spedding” and lunged towards him, grabbing him around the throat with both hands.

The drastic consequences transpired because Spedding went to a Kendall home on the NSW Mid North Coast in September 2014 for a routine washing machine repair. Days later, three-year-old William vanished from the property, attracting national media attention.

Former detective chief inspector Gary Jubelin – then head of Strike Force Rosann, investigating William’s disappearance – set his sights on Spedding, devising a plan to pursue him for historical sexual assault claims to elicit information about William.

The allegations had already been investigated by police in 1987, with no charges laid.

An internal police document put together by Jubelin in April 2015, 11 days before Spedding’s arrest, detailed a seven-step investigation plan which included gathering evidence against Spedding, charging him, and recommending that his bail be refused.

Lawyers for Spedding described the document as “dripping with malice” in a NSW Supreme Court case where Spedding argued the historical charges were laid to put pressure on him in the Tyrrell investigation, and punish him for his suspected involvement.

On Thursday, Justice Ian Harrison agreed, awarding him $1.48 million in damages in the case for malicious prosecution, misfeasance in public office, and collateral abuse of process.

“The frenetic and poorly conceived arrest of Mr Spedding could never in my view have been justified and was clearly malicious,” Harrison said.

On Thursday, he had a smile on his face as he walked from court holding the hand of his wife Margaret. He said he felt relief, but, “no sum of money will restore the life I enjoyed before this terrible nightmare”.

Read the full article at The Sydney Morning Herald.