–With AAP.
1. William Tyrrell’s foster mother made conflicting claims about the morning he vanished.
William Tyrrell’s foster mother gave conflicting claims to police about seeing cars in the street on the morning he disappeared, an inquest has heard.
The inquest heard on Monday that the foster mother – who can’t be named for legal reasons – told police she saw two unknown sedans parked in the street outside William’s foster grandmother’s home on the morning he disappeared, but she did not mention this when she first spoke to police on the morning William disappeared.
Then during a filmed “walk-through” four days later, she recalled seeing two cars, one grey and one white with “dark tinted windows”.
Detective Sergeant Laura Beacroft, who joined the investigation in September 2015, said she’d been unable to corroborate the foster mother’s statement about the cars seen at 7.30am and 9am.
Under questioning from a lawyer for William’s biological father, the detective told the NSW Coroners Court some witnesses were adamant the cars described were not there.
One woman said she was sure she’d have noticed the cars as vehicles were rarely parked on the wide, quiet street, the inquest was told.
As reported by news.com.au, Det Sgt Beacroft said the foster father, who previously told the inquest he was out of town for work between 9am and 10.30am, also couldn't remember seeing the vehicles as he left.
It was also revealed that police did not formally take a statement from William's foster father until six days after he vanished, despite being videoed during a "walk-through" at the crime scene earlier in the week.
Det Sgt agreed with the lawyer for William's birth father when asked if it was best practice to take the earliest possible memories in a formal statement.
"Yes... I can only imagine in the sheer size of what was going on, perhaps it was overlooked," she said, news.com.au reported.
The inquest was also told a local resident saw a boy matching William Tyrrell's description being driven away from the area the day he disappeared.
Ronald Chapman was outside his Laurel Street home in Kendall on September 12, 2014, when he saw two cars travelling east, a senior detective told the state's Coroners Court on Monday.
In the back seat of the first car, driven by a woman, was a boy in a Spider-Man suit, the court heard.
Det Sgt Beacroft told the inquest further interviews with Chapman led her to believe he wasn't making up the possible sighting.
Laurel Street sits between Benaroon Drive - where the foster grandmother's home was - and the Pacific Highway on the eastern side of Kendall.
It links to Benaroon Drive via Batar Creek Road.
The detective said while Chapman believed the two cars may have been driving in convoy, it was possible the cars just happened to be heading in the same direction at the same time.
She said she wasn't sure if he provided a description of the person driving the second car.
Det Sgt Beacroft said officers spent months interviewing hundreds of the 1140 people living in the mid-north coast town with a list of set questions before making more targeted inquiries with so-called persons of interest.
Police asked about each person's movements on the morning William disappeared, how they learned of his disappearance and whether they, or others in their home, helped in the search, Det Sgt Beacroft said.
Residents were also asked to detail all deliveries and repairs to their home over a one-year period.
During those inquiries, a couple living on Benaroon Drive shared that they'd heard a car going towards the foster grandmother's home and turning around about the time William went missing.
Sharelle and Peter Crabb said they were on their back verandah when they heard the car about 10.05am, the inquest was told.
Det Sgt Beacroft said though 150 metres away from the foster grandmother's home, the Crabbs could likely hear a car in the quiet street.
As the inquest resumes in the regional town of Taree on Tuesday, police on Monday launched a fresh local search five years on from his disappearance.
Police, sniffer dogs and SES personnel scoured bushland around Kendall and the nearby township of Herons Creek.
2. Missing three-year-old Queensland girl found dead.
A three-year-old girl has been found dead in a dam hours after she wandered away from her family's home on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.
About 200 people, including volunteers armed with flashlights, scored the family's property at Cootharaba, near Noosa, after the little girl vanished on Monday afternoon.
They joined the police and SES workers in a frantic search before being sent home around 9pm.
Police remained at the property and divers found her body in the dam, just 150 metres from her home, around midnight.
The little girl, Elenore, had been in her room playing before she went missing, her aunt Penny Lindsay told The Courier-Mail.
"Her mother went down to get the house phone and then she was gone," she said.
"We searched for an hour and half before we called police. That was between 1.30 to 2pm."
At one point the public response from volunteers wanting to help was so overwhelming that police had to use Facebook to reassure people there were enough resources involved in the search.
"Police wish to offer their sincerest thanks to all the wonderful community members offering to come out and assist with the search."
Police will prepare a report for the coroner.
3. Jonathan Dick has been charged with the murder of his brother David.
One of Australia's most wanted fugitives Jonathan Dick has been charged with the murder of his brother David.
Dick was arrested on Monday morning following two years on the run after allegedly murdering his brother David with a sword at a Melbourne shopping centre in February 2017
He is due to face the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday night.
His mother Carol Cloke earlier said she was grateful her surviving son was found alive after his bloody citizen's arrest in a Melbourne laneway.
"I'm overwhelmed by the news this morning that my son has been found. All I ever wanted was for him to be found alive and I feel comfort in that," she said in a statement.
Ms Cloke thanked her friends, family and police who had supported her through the past two-and-a-half years since David's death.
"I have never felt alone during this because of their support," she said.
Dick was arrested on Monday morning after an assault in Melbourne's CBD on the corner of Flinders Street and Hosier Lane shortly before 7.50am.
Police arrived after reports two men had restrained a third.
A bloodied Dick was taken to hospital under police guard, while two other men also injured in the incident are helping police with their investigation.
Part of Hosier Lane and the neighbouring car park were taped off as detectives investigated.
A red-handled, curved knife and what appeared to be blood were seen on the ground in the car park entrance.
Last year a $100,000 reward was issued for information leading to Dick's arrest over his brother's murder and an attack on a man with a hammer five months later.
Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton commended the three people who performed a citizen's arrest to capture Dick and said they may be considered for the reward.
"We're grateful that they weren't significantly injured in that process. It seems that he was known to one of the people that have been part of that arrest," Mr Ashton said.
"We strongly believe that he represented a significant risk to community safety while he was out and about.
"He didn't rely on his regular network of people that we knew about. (It) seems as though in recent times he's been sleeping rough and that's made the task even more challenging."
Police had repeatedly released CCTV of Dick in a bid to find him, as well photos of his tattoos: a Wolverine versus Sabre-tooth tattoo on his right thigh, and an Incredible Hulk tattoo on his left calf.
4. Eurydice Dixon's killer faces court for his pre-sentence hearing.
The young man who raped and murdered aspiring comedian Eurydice Dixon will return to court on Tuesday for day three of his pre-sentence hearing in Melbourne.
Jaymes Todd, 20, appeared in the Supreme Court of Victoria last week for a two-day plea hearing before his anticipated sentencing later this year.
But the hearing was extended to three days, with two psychologists disagreeing about whether Todd - who has sexual sadism disorder - premeditated the murder.
Todd attacked the 22-year-old as she walked barefoot through Princes Park overnight on June 12 last year after performing a comedy gig.
Todd, who had an obsession with rape, strangulation and snuff porn - and had searched online for "emo girls" - had been stalking Ms Dixon for almost an hour before he struck.
Last week, forensic psychiatrist David Thomas said Todd hadn't planned to murder Ms Dixon, and "go the whole way" into his fantasy of non-consensual sex culminating in a woman's death.
But psychologist James Ogloff testified Todd intended to kill Ms Dixon as part of his fantasy, adding the killer would have been "aroused and excited".
Justice Stephen Kaye has indicated he will consider imposing the maximum sentence - life without parole - if he finds Todd premeditated Ms Dixon's murder.
5. Abortion debate moves to NSW upper house.
The chair of an inquiry into a NSW bill decriminalising abortion has dismissed concerns about the time given for examining the proposed laws, saying the issue has been debated since the 1960s.
The private member's bill to remove abortion from the state's Crimes Act, which passed the lower house 59 to 31, has been considered by an upper house committee ahead of this week's expected debate.
Christian organisation FamilyVoice Australia on Monday said the short time allowed for the committee inquiry had disenfranchised thousands of people, and the overall management of the bill lacked due process and procedural fairness.
Some MPs have also written to the premier seeking more time for the committee process, but chair Shayne Mallard said it has completed the work and received a broad range of submissions.
"My personal view is that if we had six months we'd still have the same information. I can't see how anything would have changed," he told AAP on Monday.
"This issue's been debated since the 1960s and so my personal view is that you could have a six-month inquiry or six-day inquiry, everyone was ready to push print and send in their submissions."
Mr Mallard expected the committee's report would be tabled in parliament on Tuesday as initially planned, despite the inquiry receiving about 14,000 submissions.
The Liberal MP had personally received 10,783 emails regarding the bill, and counting, as of Monday afternoon.
"Every member of parliament, it's the same situation," he said.
Labor MP Penny Sharpe, a co-sponsor of the bill, said she remained cautiously optimistic it would be passed despite some vigorous opposition.
"I know the Legislative Council, I've been here for too long, never say never about these things," she said.
"But I feel like MPs know how they're going to vote and I'm very hopeful that they'll vote to support this very sensible and long-overdue bill."
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has received some criticism over her handling of the draft legislation, which is opposed by several frontbench MPs including Dominic Perrottet, Anthony Roberts and David Elliott.
The premier, fresh from an overseas trade visit on Monday, said conscience votes gave colleagues latitude and she had no issue with them expressing their views.
"My only restriction is please be respectful of other people's views and that's the expectation that I have," she told reporters.
Mr Mallard - who, like Ms Berejiklian, supports the bill - said the issue had been around a long time and he didn't agree with criticism of the premier.
"This (the bill) is not an ambush, it's not a surprise and putting it at the feet of the premier's not fair," he said.
Opponents of the proposed laws in the upper house include Christian Democrat Fred Nile, who previously described the bill as "a tyrannical piece of legislation that enforces secular morality on everyone".