A $1.5 million award to Bill Spedding over trumped-up historical sexual assault allegations brought during the investigation into William Tyrrell‘s disappearance should be overturned, an appeals court has been told.
NSW Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison found NSW Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions continued the case against Spedding, in which made-up claims of historical sexual abuse against two girls were brought, for an improper purpose.
On Tuesday, NSW’s barrister Stephen Free SC attempted to overturn this judgment, arguing that Harrison incorrectly analysed the facts of the case and made erroneous findings in favour of Spedding.
Free submitted that while the judge identified the three police officers who were investigating Spedding and who first charged him with sexual abuse, no one was named in the Office of the DPP over the claimed malicious prosecution.
“That kind of approach is apt to lead to error because it doesn’t zero in on the particular act or particular individuals at particular times,” he told the NSW Court of Appeal.
Without naming individuals in the ODPP, it was impossible to assess their state of mind and determine whether they maliciously pursued the case against Spedding, the court was told.
There was also no evidence to suggest the director or those under him were colluding with police officers, including Inspector Gary Jubelin who openly wrote that the criminal proceedings were a way to nail Spedding for William’s disappearance.
“(As) the person leading the investigation, I had to weigh up the cost of charging Bill against the cost of doing nothing and found the scales did not balance. The cost of doing nothing was heavier,” he wrote in his book, I Catch Killers.
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There was no evidence that Jubelin was the critical decision-maker when it came to charging Spedding, Free said.
There was also nothing to say that the other police officers working on the case or the officers at the ODPP shared Jubelin’s ulterior motive, the barrister added.
Harrison also erred by finding the DPP was not reasonable in bringing the sexual assault charges against Spedding in April 2015 or for continuing with the case.
Prosecutors were not required to read over other material available to NSW Police which showed the charges were made-up and were entitled to bring the matter to trial, despite a not guilty verdict eventually being handed down in March 2018.
“It’s not the role of the prosecutor to usurp the function of a jury,” Free said.
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