Stephen Vincent Grimmer, brother of Cheryl Grimmer, the three-year-old girl who went missing at Fairy Meadow Beach in January 1970, has pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a teenage girl in Sussex Inlet in 2016.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Grimmer, 55, appeared in Nowra District Court on Thursday, October 17 for the start of a sexual assault trial scheduled for seven days.
Just before the jury was selected to hear the case, Grimmer pleaded guilty to three charges of indecent assault against a 14-year-old girl.
A further charge of indecent assault was dropped, as was a charge of aggravated sexual assault.
Two of the charges stemmed from sexual assaults between April 8-26, 2016 in Sussex Inlet.
Court papers revealed Grimmer was known to the victim.
During the Easter holidays, he would isolate her and started kissing her on the lips. He began touching her by putting his hands down her pants, touched the outside of her vagina and touched her breasts. The girl described it happening "lots of times".
On one incident he took her out for a trip on his boat and tried to force himself on the teenager. He kissed her lips several times and put his hand inside and outside her bra. Grimmer later told her not to tell anyone as he would get in trouble.
The third charge came from an incident between April 8 and October 10, 2016 again in Sussex Inlet in which he kissed the girl, put his hand under her top and touched her breasts.
Despite his guilty pleas and the severity of the offences, Grimmer, who has been employed as a full-time plant operator for South Coast Equipment for 27 years, had his bail continued.
However, Judge Chris O'Brien imposed two new conditions, that Grimmer report to Wollongong Police Station twice a day and surrender his passport and not apply for a new one.
Judge O'Brien said he didn't consider Grimmer to be a "flight risk" despite the strong possibility he would receive a custodial sentence for the offences.
"Mr Grimmer has been on bail for almost three years and during that time has met all of his bail conditions," he said.
Cheryl Grimmer, his sister, went missing from outside a shower block at Fairy Meadow Beach in 1970.
In 2017 a Victorian man who had been at the beach that day was arrested and charged with Cheryl's murder. Those charges were later dropped.
Only a month after a man was charged with murder, Grimmer was arrested by child abuse squad detectives.
There is no suggestion Grimmer was responsible for his sister's disappearance - he was only six years old at the time.
Grimmer will reappear before Nowra District Court for sentencing in February next year.
Read more: Crime/Court