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IN PHOTO: New South Wales police officers place marker cones over potential evidence among shattered glass during their investigation into the Sydney cafe siege, December 16, 2014. Heavily armed Australian police stormed Lindt cafe in central Sydney on Tuesday and freed a number of hostages being held there at gunpoint, in a dramatic end to a 16-hour siege in which three people were killed and four wounded. REUTERS/Jason Reed

The disappearance of Australian toddler William Tyrrell may be connected to a paedophile ring. The head of the Homicide Squad revealed the possibilities at a press conference.

Detective Superintendent Michael Willing said on Friday that the investigation of William’s disappearance might be related to people suspected to be involved in a paedophile ring. He said that police were “vigorously pursuing” the line of inquiry.

Willing added that police had recent information that a paedophile ring might be operating near Kendall. He said that the missing toddler’s parents had been incredibly strong to come forward and lodge a public appeal for information.

The superintendent said that police saw the tremendous pain the parents were going through not knowing what had happened to their child. "They have laid bare their feelings in a heart-wrenching plea for the community's help and are doing everything in their power to seek the safe return of their little boy,” he said.

Willing said that investigating officers were committed to finding out what happened to the missing child. The NSW homicide unit now has officers from the Sex Crimes Unit which is going to work on the case as well.

William went missing from the yard of his grandmother's home in Kendall in September 2014. It was only Thursday that his parents gave their first interview in public. The mother refused to believe that her son was dead. She said that the family wanted the 3-year-old to get back home safely.

The mother said that the family needed to know where William was and what happened to him as it would not be possible to “live forever like this.” She added that William’s sister could not grow up never knowing what had happened to her brother.

“If somebody has him and if he is alive I want him to be safe, I want him to be feeling loved and I want someone to be looking after him because to imagine that something else is going on; we can’t live a life like that,” the mother said. The mother made the appeal as the investigation entered its seventh month since the disappearance.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au

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