The prime suspect in the disappearance of a British toddler in Australia more than 50 years ago has been sensationally named by an MP in parliament.
Three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer was kidnapped from a changing area after spending a morning at the seaside in Wollongong, New South Wales, with her mum and three brothers in 1970.
Her body has never been found.
A year after she vanished, a 17-year-old boy confessed to killing Cheryl, who was originally from Bristol, but police dismissed his claims.
Jeremy Buckingham, of the Legalise Cannabis Party, used parliamentary privilege on Thursday to identify a man known only as ‘Mercury’ for legal reasons.
Mercury, whose identity is protected because he was 16 at the time, was charged in 2017 with Cheryl’s abduction and murder.
However, key evidence was ruled inadmissible and the charges against him were dropped.
A judge ruled the man’s interview with police from April 1971 could not be used in court because there had been no parent, adult or lawyer accompanying him, Australian media reported at the time.
In parliament on Thursday, Mr Buckingham broke down several times as he read out Mercury’s confession and revealed his identity before calling for a new investigation into Cheryl’s murder.
‘The family of Cheryl Grimmer have been through so much anguish over such a long period of time,’ he said.
‘(Mercury) is a free man living with his identity suppressed from his neighbours and no one has been punished for Cheryl Grimmer’s abduction and murder.’
He spent more than 17 minutes reading the chilling confession, ABC News reports.
Reading from it, he said: ‘I come around from the back of shower block and grabbed the little girl, I took her by the hand and put one hand around her mouth and carried her around to the sand hills.
‘I then continued up to Bulli Pass where I took the little girl, she started to scream when I took her up there — 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 tree, I covered her up with leaves and bushes and threw some dirt on top.’
It came after Cheryl’s brother Ricki Nash set a deadline on midnight on Wednesday for Mercury to come forward, which passed with no response.
Cheryl’s family, some of whom were in the gallery, have been calling for a fresh inquiry since the collapse of Mercury’s trial.
On the 50th anniversary of her disappearance, NSW authorities upped the reward on the cold case to one million Australian dollars (£528,000) for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
A coroner in 2011 found Cheryl had died – but her cause and manner of death remained undetermined, NSW Police said.
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