-With AAP.
1. “Devastating.” Bill Spedding on the impact of being linked to William Tyrrell’s disappearance.
One-time person-of-interest in the disappearance of William Tyrrell, Bill Spedding, says the intense police and media scrutiny he endured has had a “devastating impact” on him and his family.
Flanked by his wife Margaret and his lawyer Peter O’Brien, Spedding on Monday said he had told police and a NSW coroner everything he could to help them find William.
The three-year-old went missing from his foster grandmother’s home in Kendall, on NSW’s mid-north coast, at about 10.15am on September 12, 2014.
Spedding, a whitegoods repairman who visited the home three days earlier to fix a washing machine, has always vehemently denied any involvement.
A new environmental foundation backed by Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio is pledging $US5 million ($A7.4 million) in aid to the Amazon, which has been swept by wildfires.
Earth Alliance was created last month by DiCaprio and philanthropists Laurene Powell Jobs and Brian Sheth.
It launched the Amazon Forest Fund in an announcement on its website on Sunday.
The alliance is also seeking donations to help repair the Brazilian rainforest, often referred to as the “lungs of the planet”.
A record number of wildfires were reported across Brazil this year by federal experts, up 84 per cent over the same period in 2018.