'OZ MADDIE RAP': Man aged 63 charged with abducting 3-year-old girl (Cheryl Grimmer) from Australian beach in 1970

by **Tony Bennett** 24.03.17 11:53

https://www.thesun.ie/news/770228/man-63-charged-with-murder-of-brit-girl-cheryl-grimmer-3-snatched-from-australian-beach-in-1970/

'OZ MADDIE' RAP

Man, 63, charged with murder of young girl Cheryl Grimmer, 3, snatched from Australian beach in 1970

Major breakthrough into Maddie-style disappearance from Fairy Meadow Beach in Woollongong in January 1970

By Felix Allen 24th March 2017, 9:16 am
Updated: 24th March 2017, 10:02 am

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A MAN aged 63 has been charged with the abduction and murder of toddler Cheryl Grimmer who was snatched from a beach in Australia 47 years ago.

The major breakthrough comes following fresh clues into the three-year-old’s disappearance from Fairy Meadow Beach in Woollongong, near Sydney, in January 1970.

Cheryl was snatched when she was three-years-old,. Cops are now hunting a new suspect..

[ PIC Carole Grimmer with her three sons, Stephen, Ricki and Paul, the day after Cheryl went ]

The Aussie military joined the police in the search for the tot who disappeared from Fairy Meadow Beach in January 1970

Witnesses came forward to say they saw a teenager loitering near a shower block and public changing rooms at the time Cheryl vanished.

The suspect was arrested in Melbourne and extradited to Sydney for a court appearance.

The security guard, who cannot be named because he was 16 at the time, is accused of abducting and the youngster and strangling her less than an hour later.

However he did not appear in court as his lawyer said he needed “urgent psychiatric care”.

Outside Woolongong Local Court, elder brother Stephen, now 53, said he was disappointed as he had been hoping to look the man accused in the eye.

He said: “I would have definitely made eye contact with him. But I don’t think he would have if he came up.”

This breakthrough is the oldest cold case arrest in Australia and comes after police received new information about Cheryl’s suspected kidnapper.

The new information came from witnesses – now in their 50s – who were nine, ten and 12 at the time.

Cheryl’s disappearance sparked a huge search including the military but no trace has ever been found of her.

She had been visiting the beach with her mum Carole and her three older brothers Ricki, eight, Stephen, six, and five-year-old Paul.

The case has echoes of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, also three, from her parents’ holiday apartment in the Algarve in May 2007.

The Grimmer family had migrated from England the year before and settled into a hostel near the beach as dad John worked away as a sapper in the Australian army.

Both of Cheryl’s parents died without knowing what happened to her

After Cheryl vanished the Grimmers returned to the UK to grieve but, still desperate for answers years later, moved back to Australia permanently in 1980.

In 2011 Cheryl was officially declared “dead but missing” and the investigation reopened as a homicide case.

Carole died three years ago and John also went to his grave without knowing what happened to Cheryl.

But they never gave up hope and refused to believe she had been murdered, for years keeping her bedroom just as it had been on the day she disappeared.

In an interview, Carole once said she still looked for her daughter every day, scanning the faces of women who would have been her age and imagining their reunion.

The tragedy continues to haunt Cheryl’s brothers Ricki, now 54, Stephen, 52, and Paul, 51.

Ricki said in December he still lived with the heartache of leaving his sister unattended.

He said: “Decisions I made on the day were wrong. I shouldn’t have left. What do you say? What do you do?

“It’s affected me all my life. Everybody says, ‘It wasn’t your fault’. Come and stand where I’m standing. See what it feels like.”

He begged: “Just let us know where she is. Give us something so we can mourn. It’s cost me and my family everything.”

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by **Jill Havern** 24.03.17 11:56

Has 3 year old Cheryl Grimmer been dubbed the 'Australian Maddie McCann'?

by ChippyM 26.03.17 12:32

All the papers were using phrases such as 'Australian Maddie' about this case last year. Now it's revealed the child was assaulted and strangled quickly and not far from where she was taken, they don't seem to be!