Updated
A murder charge against a man accused of killing toddler Cheryl Grimmer, who went missing almost 50 years ago, has been dropped.
Key points:
- Cheryl Grimmer was last seen at a shower block at Fairy Meadow beach
- Her body has never been found, despite extensive searches
- Police reopened the case in 2016 and charged the man in 2017
The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, succeeded in having a key piece of evidence against him ruled inadmissible ahead of his trial in the NSW Supreme Court.
This afternoon prosecutors told the judge they would no longer proceed with the case.
Justice Robert Allan Hulme then told the man he was free to go and he walked out of the Darlinghurst Court Complex accompanied by his two lawyers.
Cheryl Grimmer was just three years old when she disappeared from a shower block at Fairy Meadow Beach on January 12, 1970.
Her brother Ricki Nash, who was in court, told the ABC he was devastated.
“We’re just a bit numb, a bit shocked … no words can describe how I feel at the moment,” they said.
“Obviously lots terrible things are going through my head.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
Mr Nash said he had lived his life in the hope that his sister would “tap on the front door one day” but the hope that she was still alive was destroyed two years ago when the man was charged with her murder.
Despite an intensive police search at the time the toddler went missing, she has never been found.
After the case was reopened in 2016, police charged the man in 2017.
The trial was due to begin in May, but at a pre-trial hearing this month the man’s lawyers argued a key piece of evidenced should be ruled inadmissible.
Topics:
First posted
from Trend Gossip Now http://bit.ly/2SOBZQ6
0 Comments