A man falsely accused in the William Tyrrell case will be paid $1.5 million after the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal said he was the victim of the “worst case” of malicious prosecution the state has ever seen. William Spedding was first identified as a ‘person of interest’ in 2015 – a year after the toddler disappeared from his foster grandmother’s house on the NSW Mid-North Coast. Spedding successfully sued the state last year after a court found detectives had arrested him in front of TV cameras on other historical charges to try to “crack him”. The NSW Government tried to get that decision overturned, but the decision was upheld, and police were warned that the stunt should never be repeated.