Cheryl Grimmer's family 'deeply angry' as decision to drop case upheld

Cheryl Grimmer's family says it is devastated after the NSW director of public prosecutions upheld the decision to abandon the case over the three-year-old's disappearance.

Cheryl disappeared from Fairy Meadow Beach near Wollongong on January 12, 1970.

Her body has never been recovered.

Her brother, Ricki Nash, has strongly criticised the outcome of a formal request under the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) Victims' Right Of Review Policy.

"I am utterly disgusted, devastated and deeply angry at what our family has received,"

he said.

The review examined the decision to discontinue proceedings against a man known by the pseudonym "Mercury", who had been charged over Cheryl's disappearance.

The prosecution collapsed in 2019 after the NSW Supreme Court excluded admissions Mercury made to police when he was 17.

Justice Robert Hulme found the interview did not meet legal requirements applying to admissions made by children, including safeguards concerning the presence of an adult.

DPP finds ruling cannot be challenged

In a two-page letter emailed to the family on September 16, director of public prosecutions Sally Dowling SC acknowledged the impact of the original decision and their patience while the review was conducted.

Ms Dowling said she had reviewed the case "afresh to determine if the decision not to proceed further was correct".

"As you appreciate, this question turns on whether the exclusion of the recorded interview with Mercury by the trial judge is reasonably open to challenge.

"After careful consideration I have concluded that it is not, and that therefore the original decision to take no further proceedings following that ruling was correct."

She told the family her review led her to conclude 'there are not reasonable prospects of succeeding in a challenge to the trial judge's determination" on Mercury's admissions.

She said she appreciated the determination would be very disappointing for the family and offered to meet with them to discuss the decision.

Mr Nash said the family had provided 50 detailed submissions, setting out extensive evidence and legal arguments.

"We have received an extraordinarily brief determination. To describe the findings as disappointing is an understatement."

Mr Nash said the repose provided little detail explaining how those matters were actually dealt with.

The family believed the review focused on whether the original ruling could be challenged, rather than fully reconsidering and responding to the issues it raised.

"That distinction matters enormously to us. There is also something else that cannot be ignored."

Serious admissions excluded from case

He said Mercury's admissions contained details about Cheryl and her disappearance that raised questions about how he could have known them.

''The fact that such extraordinary admissions were made is precisely why our family believes the circumstances surrounding them deserved the most rigorous examination possible."

He said the family did not expect the DPP to automatically agree with them, but did expect an application under the Victims' Right of Review Policy to provide "meaningful scrutiny".

"Our family is devastated and angry, but we are not going to stop asking questions.

"We owe that to Cheryl. She was only three years old. Cheryl deserves better."

The review is separate from the family's request for NSW Police to assess what it describes as significant new evidence that emerged after the prosecution ended.

That material includes accounts from potential witnesses who came forward following renewed publicity generated by BBC reporter Jon Kay's podcast, Fairy Meadow.