11 hours agoShareSaveJon Kaypresenter of Fairy Meadow podcast & BBC Breakfast andGeorge SandemanShareSaveFamily handoutThe family of a toddler who disappeared from an Australian beach more than 50 years ago have criticised police for not formally interviewing potential eyewitnesses during a review of the case.Officers suspect three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer was abducted from Fairy Meadow beach, which is about 50 miles (80km) south of Sydney in New South Wales (NSW), when she went missing on 12 January 1970. The Grimmer family had only just emigrated from the UK. They have now been told the review, which took four years to complete, has not brought up any new evidence that could lead to a conviction.They are angry that three potential eyewitnesses who spoke to the BBC were not formally interviewed by officers, despite their contact details being passed to police.Ricki Nash, Cheryl’s brother, said he felt “total frustration” about the way the review had been handled, which he understood was “meant to be a detailed, full review” of the case.”There are no words, just nothing,” he said of the decision not to formally interview the potential eyewitnesses. “Our family can’t move forward without the help of the police.”The three potential eyewitnesses came forward after the BBC aired the Fairy Meadow true crime podcast in 2022, which has since been downloaded five million times.One man, who asked to keep his identity private, said he had seen a teenage boy carrying away a small child from changing rooms beside the beach on the day Cheryl disappeared.The man said he had a brief chat over the phone with NSW Police after telling the BBC about what he saw, but did not hear from the force again.Damian Loone, a retired detective who worked on Cheryl’s case, said he believed the man’s testimony was “very credible”.Family handoutIn 2017, a man in his 60s was charged with Cheryl’s abduction and murder after officers discovered a confession made to police by a teenage boy in 1971. A judge later ruled the confession could not be presented as trial evidence.The defendant – known only by his police codename “Mercury” because he was a minor at the time of the alleged offences – was freed in 2019 and all charges, which he denied, were dropped.In a new episode of the Fairy Meadow podcast, former Det Sgt Loone said he “just can’t fathom” why the police did not formally interview the man who spoke to the BBC, something he would have done if he was still in charge of the investigation into Cheryl’s disappearance.”I think that’s sloppy police work,” he added. “That’s what they should have done and I can’t believe that it hasn’t happened.”He said he believed the man was “the only independent witness” that was at Fairy Meadow beach who saw a teenage boy – aged around 16 or 17 – with Cheryl on the day she went missing. “We know that the suspect Mercury was [of] that age group at the time,” he added.Kay Tutton, another potential eyewitness, contacted the BBC to say she saw a man taking a little girl away from the beach on the day Cheryl disappeared.”I just [remember] this lovely little girl and she was very upset. And this man had her tightly by the hand and said ‘come on’. She obviously didn’t want to go.”Kay went to a police station shortly after seeing a news report about Cheryl going missing in 1970 but officers did not speak to her again after she told them what she saw.The BBC provided them with updated contact details after Kay, now aged 82, emailed us about the podcast – but she has not heard from officers.Another woman, who also asked to keep her identity private, told us she had been approached by a man on a beach near Fairy Meadow a few days before Cheryl disappeared. She says she hasn’t been contacted by NSW Police either.”I’ve got this information that I could give to them and they are not interested, you know? I’m just disappointed,” she told us. “It could lead to something.”Cheryl’s brother Ricki, now 62, was seven years old when she disappeared. The pair had been together in changing rooms beside Fairy Meadow beach but after he turned away for a few seconds, she was gone.He has written an open letter highlighting what he believes are errors in the police investigation dating back to the day she went missing.A petition asking the state parliament to set up an inquiry into missing persons investigations overseen by NSW Police, such as Cheryl’s, attracted more than 10,000 signatures this summer.It was debated in parliament, but in a letter responding to petitioners, the state’s minister for police and counter-terrorism made no commitment to holding an inquiry.NSW Police said all the information it received, including potential eyewitness accounts from the BBC, was properly assessed. They said it was not the case that everyone who contacted them would be interviewed.”Each submission is evaluated on its merits, and decisions regarding subsequent action are made in accordance with investigative standards and the relevance of the information to the established facts.”They added that they met members of Cheryl’s family last September for a three-hour discussion about the police review in which “all known and verified facts were clearly outlined”.In 2020, 50 years after Cheryl disappeared, NSW Police offered a reward of one million Australian dollars (£529,000) to anybody who had information that led to a successful conviction.Ricki told us: “You offer a million dollar reward, people come forward, you don’t speak to them. Why offer the reward?”Was that j …
