The couple, who cannot be legally named, appeared at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court last Tuesday for their hearing dates to be set down.

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“It’s still our preference that those two matters be heard by separate judges,” the foster father’s solicitor Phoebe MacDougall told the court.

In March, Magistrate Susan McIntyre found the mother’s threats to slap the child amounted to intimidation.

The woman earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of assault after striking the child with a wooden spoon and kicking them on the thigh.

The foster father also intimidated the youngster on one occasion while driving to school, when the child was heard crying and sobbing.

Ms McIntyre also cleared the foster mother of five counts of intimidation and dismissed one charge against the foster father of assaulting the child.

The pair were convicted and handed twelve-month good-behaviour bonds.

Last Tuesday, the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions confirmed it would not be appealing the magistrate’s acquittal of William’s ex-foster mother after previously flagging it was considering this course of action.

The foster father is due to face a half-day appeal hearing on February 10, 2025, then his partner’s legal challenge will span two days commencing on April 7.

The crown prosecutor told the court the mother’s appeal would take longer as there were five days of hearings to pore over as well as lengthy telephone intercepts to listen to.

The cases against the couple are heavily suppressed, meaning their names and other identifying details have been hidden from the public eye.

Police prosecution of the pair relied on more than 1000 hours of covert recordings made in their home and vehicles over fourteen months in 2020 and 2021.

The recordings were made by detectives investigating the disappearance of three-year-old William, who went missing while playing at his foster grandmother’s home in Kendall on the NSW mid-north coast on September 12, 2014.

Police inquiries into whether the foster mother was involved in William’s disappearance have been paused until an inquest into the boy’s suspected death resumes.

Investigators had provided a brief for prosecutors to consider potential charges against the woman, who they believed might have disposed of William’s body after his accidental death.

She has always denied having anything to do with William’s disappearance.

No one has been charged in the case and a $1 million reward for information still stands.

By Miklos BOLZA, AAP