Alleged confession of Cheryl Grimmer's accused killer made public for first time
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A man accused of murdering three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer at Fairy Meadow Beach almost 50 years ago allegedly told police he hid with the girl in a nearby drain for 35 minutes before taking her to the place where he killed her.
The man allegedly confessed to the January 12, 1970 killing in an interview with police a year later, but walked free for decades due to apparent “inconsistencies” between his account and what police already knew about the case.
In Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday, the Crown made details of the alleged confession public for the first time.
Cheryl's brother Paul outside Wollongong court on Wednesday.
The man allegedly told police he watched Cheryl being lifted up to take a drink from a bubbler outside the beach change rooms, then saw her companions – her three brothers disappear.
“The little girl walked west between the pavilion and the boat shed and … he says he grabbed her, put one hand over her mouth and carried her away towards the main road and hid in a drain for about 35 minutes,” prosecutor Emiljia Beljic told the court.
“He then tied a handkerchief and a shoelace around her mouth and used a black shoelace to tie her hands behind her back. He then carried her to [a location] which was referred to as Bulli.
“He said he was intending to have sexual intercourse with her.”
Appearing via AV link from Silverwater jail on Wednesday, the man inhaled sharply into the microphone at this point.
“Bullsh-t,” he said.
Cheryl's brother Ricki Grimmer at a press conference at Fairy Meadow Surf Club in 2016. Picture: Robert Peet
Beljic continued: “She [Cheryl] started to scream as soon as he took the gag off her and he put his hands around her throat and told her to shut up”.
“She stopped crying and stopped breathing. He panicked, placed bushes and dirt on her body. He took off all of her clothing. The only items he left there were shoelaces. He then made his way back to Fairy Meadow Beach.”
The man cannot be named because he was 15 at the time of Cheryl’s vanishing.
The accused man led police on a walk-through of a Balgownie neighbourhood four days after his April 29, 1971 interview, the court heard on Wednesday.
He allegedly pointed out where he left Cheryl’s body and drew police attention to a post-and-wire fence fronting onto Balgownie Road.
He allegedly described a a tubular steel gate on the fence, a cattle ramp, a track and a small creek.
Police interviewed the then-property owner, who said there was no cattle guard in place on the day of the alleged murder – one of the inconsistencies that led to the accused man being ruled out as a suspect, Ms Beljic told the court.
Cheryl Grimmer with her father.
“An inquiry with the owner of the property revealed that he said that the cattle guard wasn’t in place on the 20 January 1970, and indeed that at the time there was no tubular fence.”
“At the time, in 1971, police investigated the matter they could not confirm his presence around Fairy Meadow area,” she added.
The property owner’s son has been interviewed as part of the recently re-opened investigation and had told police that “the cattle guard was certainly in place [and] that he recalls the tubular gate and he recalls that there was a track leading into the property … across a small creek and that corroborates what the accused said”.
CROWN CASE: Crown prosecutor Emiljia Beljic (left) departs Wollongong courthouse following Wednesday's application.
Also part of the re-opened investigation, Cheryl’s brother Ricki Grimmer told police that he lifted his sister to allow her to reach a bubbler at the beach, in the minutes before she vanished.
“He provided information … which could only be known to the accused because of his presence there,” Ms Beljic said. “He recalls lifting Miss Grimmer to have a drink out of the fountain and that’s what the accused says – that he saw her being lifted and taking a drink.”
The Crown will rely on psychiatric reports from 1970 in which the accused man allegedly told doctors he had urges to kill himself and kill other people.
“He reported homicidal urges,” Ms Beljic said.
“It’s all crap, eh,” responded the man.
KEEPING WATCH: Paul Grimmer, one of Cheryl's three brother, who was with her moments before she vanished almost 50 years ago, departs the court precinct on Wednesday.
One of Cheryl’s brothers, Paul Grimmer, was in court with his family to keep watch over Wednesday’s proceedings.
The proceedings centred around the evidence that is to be provided by four police witnesses at an upcoming committal hearing. The Crown was seeking to provide only written statements; the defence argued for the chance to cross examine three of men.
By day’s end Wednesday, a deal was struck for written statements from the three still-serving detectives – Frank Santivale, Damian Loone and Detective Darke. Only retired detective Philip Findlay, who worked on the original investigation and is now aged in his 70s, will give his evidence in person when the case returns to court July 27.