A man previously charged over the alleged murder of a toddler five decades ago has been named under parliamentary privilege.

Three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer was allegedly abducted on January 12, 1970 outside a shower block at Fairy Meadow Beach in Wollongong, south of Sydney.

The case has been the subject of multiple police investigations in the decades since, and a coronial inquest in 2011 found Cheryl was likely deceased.

In 2017, a man — known by the pseudonym Mercury — pleaded not guilty after he was charged with Cheryl’s murder.

Prosecutors later dropped the case against the man – who was a teenager when Cheryl vanished – after the NSW Supreme Court ruled his confession was inadmissible.

The teen did not have a parent, adult, or lawyer present when he was interviewed in 1971, and t

See Full Page