An Australian man wrongly accused of abducting a three-year-old boy has revealed how police threatened to "ruin" him.
Washing machine repairman Bill Spedding was asked to fix a machine at William Tyrrell's foster grandmother's NSW home in 2014. When William disappeared three days later, he became the highest-profile suspect and his home and business were raided.
Police found a Spider-Man toy in the back of Spedding's van - a suspicious coincidence considering William was wearing a Spider-Man suit when he went missing.
As a result, Spedding has told Australian current affairs programme Four Corners he was put through a "really intense" six-hour interview at the police station, with one detective threatening him.
"We know you did it. We're going to get you. I'm going to come and arrest you," Spedding says he was told.
"I said, 'I haven't done anything. What are you talking about?' And that's when I realised that they really thought that I was involved in some way."
Investigator Gary Jubelin, who took over the case, allegedly said he was coming to get him, Spedding claims.
"Gary Jubelin said to me 'Mr Nice-Washing-Machine-Man, we're going to ruin you'," he told Four Corners.
"And at another point of time he [said], 'Whenever they talk about William Tyrrell, your name's going to come up as well. And when they're talking about you, William Tyrrell's name is going to come up'."
Jubelin has denied saying this, and says investigating Spedding was the right thing to do.
But the public attention caused by the case put an enormous strain on Spedding, who says his life has been shattered.
"Describing the feeling is very difficult, but it's sad," Spedding told Four Corners.
"We just don't know, when someone's going to pop out of the woodwork, and grab me around the throat again, and say, 'You're Bill Spedding. What'd you do with William?'"
William's body has never been discovered, however Spedding's alibi was corroborated this year at the coronial inquest after a parent said they saw Spedding at a school assembly during the time of William's disappearance.
His wife says she wants police to apologise for their actions and Spedding is now suing NSW police over how he was investigated.
Newshub.
