Police investigating the disappearance of William Tyrrell placed a Spider-Man suit and a secret camera on a bush track where a person of interest was known to walk, a Sydney court has been told.
The surveillance strategy was revealed on Tuesday at Downing Centre local court during the hearing of charges against former New South Wales senior detective Gary Jubelin. Magistrate Ross Hudson earlier rejected an application by the NSW police commissioner to suppress details of the investigation's covert and surveillance strategies.
Jubelin, 57, has pleaded not guilty to illegally recording four conversations with the person of interest, Paul Savage, in 2017 and 2018 as he investigated William's disappearance from a home in Kendall in September 2014. Crown prosecutor Philip Hogan said Savage lived in the same street and was at home when the three-year-old vanished wearing a Spider-Man suit.
On 26 July 2017, police placed a camera and a Spider-Man suit, similar to the one William had been wearing, on the bush track where Savage walked daily. They photographed him in the area but were unsure if he saw the suit that day. He reported it to police the next day. Hogan said the significance was that it was one of the subjects Jubelin spoke to him about.
The court heard that at times surveillance and telephone intercept warrants were issued for Savage, but Jubelin allegedly made four secret recordings not covered by them. He allegedly instructed another officer to record the first call from police headquarters using the speaker phone, and told the officer not to save the recording, though it was later placed on the computer system. Two other calls were secretly made on Jubelin's mobile at Savage's house, with Jubelin later asking the officer to make transcripts claiming they were under the warrants.
Jubelin admitted making the calls but asserts the recordings were made to protect his lawful interests, including for operational reasons. Hogan argued that Jubelin could not have a personal interest in a matter arising out of a police investigation, and that the conversations were not urgent and could have been delayed to organise appropriate warrants. Detective Sergeant Laura Beacroft, part of the investigation, said numerous strategies were devised to evoke a reaction from Savage, including tracking devices, cameras and surveillance operatives. She noted Savage had a habit of listening to his radio very loudly, which caused static problems in audio recordings. She said Jubelin had come up with the idea of placing the Spider-Man suit in the bush.
