Today, NSW deputy coroner Harriet Grahame heard the woman was publicly named and abused outside Lidcombe Coroners Court yesterday afternoon.
Strict legal orders are in place preventing her identity from being disclosed.
“Fairness is deserved by all who come here for whatever reason,” counsel assisting Gerard Craddock SC said.
“That sort of conduct is something that could, if established, amount to a punishable contempt of court.”
Grahame said she was disappointed and disturbed by the conduct.
“I do issue a stern warning, please behave in an appropriate manner,” she said.
William went missing while playing on the verandah at his foster grandmother’s home in Kendall, on the NSW mid-north coast, on September 12, 2014.
Today, Craddock said the focus would be on a police search in 2021 as well as a theory that William died in an accident on the property and that his foster mother disposed of his body.
The alleged motive was that the woman and her husband would lose custody of another child under their care if the death was uncovered.
The foster mother denies having anything to do with William’s disappearance.
Craddock said “intensive, thorough” police searches had failed to turn up any forensic evidence about the fate of the three-year-old.
Today, Senior Constable Jost Preis gave brief evidence about how he used data from GPS trackers worn by police and others combing around the Kendall home in 2018 and 2021 to form a colour-coded map of the entire search area.
