Cheryl Grimmer disappeared from a beach in Australia in 1970 – now her family have spoken after prosecutors announced a fresh move they hope could solve the riddle
The family of missing British toddler Cheryl Grimmer – who vanished from an Australian beach 56 years ago – have greeted a fresh development in the case.
The New South Wales Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling has now written to Cheryl’s relatives giving them fresh hope after reports the case was to be dramatically re-opened. Cheryl’s brother Paul told Mirror Online: “Its looking positive, we are keeping going, despite never losing that gut wrenching feeling inside us.”
The case centres around the confession of a man, known only as “Mercury”, who admitted killing Cheryl but the courts later ruled this was inadmissible for legal reasons.
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Dowling has now said she could revisit the case based on either how the evidence stood in 2019, when “Mercury” walked free, or on the back of ‘fresh evidence’ from the family.
In a letter to the Grimmers she said: “I also note your reference to fresh information received by your family from potential witnesses which you consider relevant or potentially relevant.
“I would invite you to consider whether you wish to progress with a review … which would be based on the brief of evidence available at the time of the initial decision to discontinue proceedings, or whether you would prefer to refer the fresh information that your family has received to the NSW Police for investigation.”
Paul said: “The focus should be on Cheryl instead of poor old him.” He went on: “When he was jailed he didn’t say a words for two years When he was extradited from Victoria to NSW and jailed in 2017, there were waiting media and TV crews and he never said a word to defend himself.
“We know he’s guilty, the courts know he’s guilty, and the justice system knows he’s guilty. Letters have been drafted and Chief Inspector David Laidlaw – from NSW Police – has got the documentation.
“We are giving him three months, it’s got to be sorted before the inquiry starts. The DPP is waiting on the police response, so they have to act
“The authorities have covered something up all of these years.” Mercury was just 17 when he made his confession. But he had no guardian or legal representative with him so his statement was not allowed to be heard in court. Cheryl was just three when she disappeared from Fairy Meadow Beach in 1970 after swimming with her family.
The following year, a teenage boy confessed to police: ‘I took her by the hand and put one hand around her mouth and carried her around to the sand hills.’
However, the confession sat in a box for five decades until a review of the cold case unearthed the document and police arrested a Victorian taxi driver in 2017.
The prosecution abruptly ended just two years later when a Supreme Court judge ruled Mercury’s confession was ‘inadmissable’ because no parent was in the room. The ODPP, believing its case was doomed to fail, dropped the charge.
