Cheryl, 3, disappeared from this beach 50yrs ago but the man who admitting taking her will never face justice
FAMILY’S RAW GRIEF AS MEMORIAL IS UNVEILED
Acrime as harrowing as the disappearance of Madeleine McCann took place 50 years ago this week. Three-year-old English toddler Cheryl Grimmer was snatched from an Australian beach in broad daylight, never to be seen alive again.
Many believe they know exactly who killed and abducted Cheryl here in the resort of Fairy Meadow near Wollongong, around 50 miles from Sydney.
Shortly after the disappearance, a local 15-year-old boy was questioned.
He confessed carrying her body two-and-a-half miles to farmland and strangling her, but police said there was not enough evidence to charge him.
The transcript reads: “I came around from the back of the shower block and grabbed the little girl. I tied a handkerchief and a shoelace around her mouth to stop her screaming and with the other shoelace I tied up her hands.”
He said he wanted to sexually assault Cheryl but she started to scream.
It reads: “She would not be quiet. So I put my arms around her throat and strangled her. I left her lying on the ground at the side of a tree.
“I covered her up with bushes and leaves and threw some dirt on top.”
A cold case review took place in 2017 and Interpol found a British family who lived in Fairy Meadow in the 1970s and were crucial witnesses.
Peter Goodyear, from Carlton, Notts, told police: “I saw a little dark man carrying a limp, blonde haired girl to a car. My daughter said to me, ‘Daddy, why is that man carrying that little girl?’”
The British-born suspect, now in his 60s, was arrested and charged but a judge ruled his initial confession could not be used in court as he was not accompanied by an adult.
The suspect, who cannot be named for legal reasons but lives in Melbourne, denied the crime. The case was dropped in February 2019 and he was freed.
Cheryl’s disappearance has echoes of the case of Madeleine, who went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007.
A£500,000 appeal by police was launched this week in the hope of finding more evidence to nail Cheryl’s abductor. Ocean waves crash in as I stand close to the beach where Cheryl last played. Behind me is the shower block from where she vanished. It has been renovated but it is in exactly the same spot.
Next door is the Fairy Meadow Surf Lifesaving Club, where Cheryl’s mum Carole ran in to report her daughter missing only to find they had no phone. She had to walk to a nearby street to ask a local resident to call police.
Carole and husband
Vince and their four children had only recently emigrated from Bristol. Dad Vince became a soldier in the Australian Army. Both died not knowing what happened to their little girl. Cheryl’s brother Ricki was the last family member to see her alive. She was wearing a royal blue, one-piece swimming costume as she followed him to the men’s showers on January 12, 1970.
He was just seven at the time but remembers waiting for her to come out. When she cheekily refused he ran to tell his mum. By the time they returned Cheryl was gone. Ricki recently
Everybody says ‘It’s not your fault’. Come and see what it feels like
CHERYL’S BROTHER RICKI GRIMMER, RIGHT
spoke of having to handle 50 years of grief. He said: “The decisions I made on the day were wrong. It’s been with me all my life. I just want it over with. I shouldn’t have left.
“Everybody says, ‘it’s not your fault’. Come and stand where I’m standing. See what it feels like.”
Cheryl’s brother Stephen said his sister’s birthday was a particularly difficult date for the family, and that she was always missed.
He said: “You’ll be having a family barbecue and she’s not there with her kids or her husband.
“My kids, Rick’s and Paul’s kids, know that there would have been an aunt out there. It’s always at the back of your mind.”
I was at the beach as Cheryl’s three devastated brothers returned to the scene to unveil a memorial plaque to mark the 50th anniversary.
The inscription reads: “This commemorative tribute acknowledges the events surrounding the unanswered disappearance of Cheryl Grimmer. This plaque serves as a reminder to all of the tragedy and demonstrates to those who are loved and lost that their memories live on.”
The incident has left deep scars in the local community.
In the Patch bar at the Cabbage Tree Hotel, locals still recall the terrible day.
One of them, who lived in a nearby hostel at the time after emigrating to Australia from Greece, remembers the day vividly.
He said: “It was such a shock to the community. Many of us had just moved to Australia and the disappearance was terrible. At the time it was common knowledge who took Cheryl and it was said she was buried on nearby farmland. It’s houses now so they will never find her body anyway.”
At a memorial parade four days earlier, locals turned out to support the family. Michelle Poole and her mum Maureen took part. “It’s just a sad, sad story,” Michelle said. “And there’s no justice for them. You can murder someone and still walk free.
“Her family have had to live with that, and Cheryl’s mum died without knowing what happened to Cheryl.”
Although she didn’t know the Grimmers,
Maureen and her family lived in the same hostel at the same time.
“They were migrants like us,” she said. “It’s just sad, what happened.”
Mayor Gordon Bradbery described the crime as one that has “impacted upon our lives ever since”.
He said: “It was unjust, a tragedy of great magnitude, and its implications are still reverberating today.”
The day after Cheryl’s disappearance, police announced they had four theories. She was either hiding, had wandered into the ocean, fallen into a waterway or been abducted.
There is only person who could end the heartache for the family and finally reveal what happened.