http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3127496/Accused-paedophile-questioned-disappearance-toddler-William-Tyrrell-related-child-rapist-murderer.htmlAccused child molester Bill Spedding was related to murdered and rapist Jeffrey John Hillsley, a court has heard.
The revelation emerged in Mr Spedding's Supreme Court bail hearing on Wednesday over his alleged assault of two girls aged three and six years old which were read out during his NSW Supreme Court bail hearing.
Hillsley is a notorious paedophile who is serving 30 years in prison for the repeated rape and murder of a girl in December 2003.
Defence lawyer Peter O'Brien, for Mr Spedding, told the court Hillsley, who had been convicted of abducting and indecently assaulting a five-year-old, had access to Spedding's alleged victims in January 1987.
Spedding is accused of sexually assaulting the two girls in a caravan in Campbelltown in April and May of 1987.
The offences were uncovered by detectives investigating the case of missing toddler William Tyrrell who vanished from his grandmother's home at Kendall, on the NSW Mid North Coast last September. Bill Spedding is a person of interest in the disappearance.
He has not been charged over the toddler's believed abduction, but in April he was arrested and placed in custody on the child sexual assault charges.
Arguing for Spedding's release on bail, Mr O'Brien suggested Hillsley had the opportunity to do something to the two young girls in the months leading up to the assaults.
Crown prosecutor Rose Sharma said Hillsley was in prison on other offences around the time the assaults on the three and six-year-old girls occurred. Hillsley was never charged over these allegations.
Mr O'Brien said that while medical evidence suggested the victims were abused in the first half 1987, it didn't show exactly when the abuse happened.
Mr O'Brien said the statements about his client allegedly causing horrific injuries to the girls - which are from a court hearing in the late 1980s - were made by the victims after 'tutoring' or 'coaching' by their mother and other adults.
An 83-page document containing hospital records and allegations of child sexual abuse was tendered in the bail application by Mr Spedding.
One of the girls complained in 1987 that 'her body was hurting' and that her private parts 'appeared to be purple and badly bruised'.
Spedding, who looked as if he had lost weight since his arrest in April, sat stony faced in Cessnock prison from where he was beamed into the NSW Supreme Court via audio visual link.
The 63-year-old NSW Mid North Coast washing machine repairman's hair was cut short and and he was wearing a green prison sweatshirt. He occasionally leant forward towards the camera as if he was straining to hear.
Mr Spedding was applying for bail on charges of having raped the two young girls at Campbelltown in western Sydney nearly 30 years ago.
The alleged victims, whose names have been suppressed, will appear as witnesses at Mr Spedding's forthcoming trial on the charges, Justice Geoffrey Bellew told the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Mr O'Brien said one of the victims had attended Westmead Hospital and that an examination 'supported penetration but it doesn't show when penetration occurred'.
Mr O'Brien said that the adults who coached the little girls 'gave innocent acts sinister overtones'.
He said that while the girls had specifically nominated Bill Spedding as their abuser it was the result of discussions with their mother 'in a hothouse of suspicion'.
'While at hospital she nominated [Bill Spedding] as the offender,' Mr O'Brien quoted the judgement.
One of the girls said 'it is Bill'.
But Mr O'Brien said there had been a 'thorough police investigation' of Mr Spedding back in the late 1980s and he hadn't been charged.
Mr Spedding faces five counts of child sexual assault and two of common assault.
His Bonny Hills property, which lies 20km from where three-year-old William Tyrrell disappeared from 10 months ago, was the subject of an intensive police search in January this year.
Mr Spedding allegedly raped two girls aged three and six repeatedly in a caravan in 1987.
The tendered judgement also contains allegations of 'ongoing' child sexual abuse by Mr Spedding in Victoria.
The grandfather has denied any involvement in the believed abduction of William Tyrell, who vanished from his grandmother's home in Kendall last September while he played, dressed in his favourite Spiderman costume.
Despite extensive searches by police no trace of William has been found.
Earlier this month it was reported that police retrieved a Spiderman toy from Mr Spedding's 'Speddo's Hire' repair van.
Opposing bail, Rosa Sharma argued that the two young girls Spedding is accused of molesting 'were very clear that it was [Bill Spedding]'.
Ms Sharma said the girls' mother 'saw bruising and a gaping hole in her genitals and th three-year-old said it was this applicant [Spedding] who has touched her down there'.
While Spedding's defence has offered to put up bail of $100,000 and for him to live with his wife and not do house calls where there might be children, Ms Sharma argued Spedding was 'facing full time custody in the latter half of his life' and the risk he would break bail conditions was to great.
Justice Geoffrey Bellew has reserved his decision on whether to grant Mr Spedding bail told the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday.
