Mandy Martyn arrived with her three children at the home of David Williamson’s partner, Tina Shannon, on October 17, 2003.

Mr Williamson said Ms Martyn had stomped her feet and said: “I have lost him. I panicked and came straight here”.

He asked whether she had checked parks and with neighbours. She had not done so.

He rang the Myrtleford police station about 4pm to report Daniel’s disappearance.

“Mandy had a coffee and appeared as cool as a cucumber,” Mr Williamson said.

Her first explanation was that she had lost the toddler about 3.30pm from the front yard.

She had gone to her backyard to stop her children fighting and Daniel was gone when she returned.

About 7pm, Ms Martyn told Mr Williamson: “I have something to tell you — I have not really seen him since 11 this morning”.

Ms Martyn said she had caught a bus to Wangaratta with her children and had left the toddler locked in her house.

Her house was on the town’s busiest corner and Mr Williamson asked: “What, you left a two-year-old child locked in a house?”

Ms Martyn went with police as they began their investigations and an officer had suggested Mr Williamson question her children about the toddler.

But he refused and said yesterday: “Mandy is a pretty violent person. She is not a person to get on the wrong side of”.

Ms Martyn’s son had later said he had a sandwich with Daniel that morning.

When Ms Martyn returned to the house, Mr Williamson said he heard her son say: “I told them the right things, mum”.

He said her children obeyed her because she was “a scary woman”.

Ms Martyn’s son would call Daniel “a scabby little thing”.

Mr Williamson said he had received four phone calls from Ms Martyn since the inquest began.

She had claimed it was a witch hunt and everyone was going to crucify her.

“She did not threaten me or anything like that,” he