NSW MP reveals identity in Cheryl Grimmer case, calls for fresh probe

A man previously charged over the disappearance and presumed death of three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer in 1970 was publicly identified under parliamentary privilege on Thursday by a New South Wales MP, who read material from a decades-old police interview and called for a fresh investigation. The revelation took place in the NSW upper house, where the MP also urged police to reinvestigate the case and noted the possibility that new witnesses could emerge.

Cheryl Grimmer vanished on January 12, 1970, after visiting Fairy Meadow Beach near Wollongong with her mother and three brothers. Her body has never been found. A coronial inquest in 2011 concluded Cheryl was likely deceased but did not determine a cause or manner of death. In 2017 police charged a man known in court as Mercury with her abduction and murder, but the case did not proceed to conviction after the NSW Supreme Court ruled his 1971 recorded interview inadmissible because he was interviewed without a parent, other adult or lawyer present. The Director of Public Prosecutions later declined to appeal that decision and the charges were dropped.

During his speech in parliament, the MP recounted passages from the April 1971...