The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions is considering reopening the case of Cheryl Grimmer, a toddler who vanished from a beach south of Sydney, after the trial of her alleged killer collapsed on a technicality almost seven years ago.
The Grimmer family, who have endured five decades of heartbreak, have already begun sending “fresh evidence” to police in the hope of starting the prosecution anew.
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. His identity was suppressed to the pseudonym “Mercury” because he had not yet turned 18 at the time of Cheryl’s death.
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.
Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling has now penned a letter to the Grimmer family saying she was prepared to review the decision to abandon the case.
Dowling 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” collected by the family.
“I also note your reference to fresh information received by your family from potential witnesses which you consider relevant or potentially relevant,” she wrote to the Grimmer family late last week.
“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.”
The DPP was not an investigatory body and could not receive the fresh information directly from the family, Dowling said. Rather, it had to go through the NSW Police first.
“In the event that the NSW Police thereafter obtained additional relevant and admissible evidence and furnished it on this Office, it could be taken into account as part of a review,” she said.
The Grimmer family, in a letter provided to the Herald, said they had immediately reached out to NSW Police to begin the process.
“To maximise the chances of the DPP Office’s review finding that the prosecution against Mercury should be recommenced, we have forwarded our information to NSW Police and asked whether they would be able to generate additional evidence within three months to support the case for the prosecution to be recommenced,” their statement reads.
The Grimmers, who migrated to Australia from England shortly before the disappearance of their toddler, said British police “may be called on” to support NSW Police in the investigation.
NSW MP Jeremy Buckingham last year used parliamentary privilege to name Mercury, despite the court order suppressing the alleged killer’s identity.
“For 55 years, Cheryl’s family and the community of the Illawarra have continued in their relentless, indomitable and inspirational quest for justice for this beautiful girl,” Buckingham said.
“I take the opportunity to say directly to Mercury … you are a coward, a slug and a murderer.
“You should do the right thing and hand yourself in, explain how you made that confession in 1971 and admit to your egregious crimes. You have not gotten away with anything.”
Buckingham repeatedly used Mercury’s name in the debate, and it appears in the official record from parliament, but that protection does not extend to the media.
Buckingham told the Herald he wanted ‘Cheryl’s Law’ to change how the Children (Criminal Proceedings) Act 1987 was applied in Mercury’s case.
The Grimmer family have been lobbying the government saying the act should not have applied to a man in his 60s, as it was reserved for children and young people in the legal system.
“We presented evidence that in 2019 the NSW Supreme Court made significant errors of law leading to the wrongful exclusion of a 1971 confession and suppression of the accused’s identity,” their statement reads.
“We asked the DPP to re‑lay charges against Mercury – supported by fresh witnesses, legislative materials, and case authorities – and to confirm there is no bar to identifying him.”
They thanked Dowling for re-considering the decision to drop the charge against Mercury.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
