AG to ask Commission to consider naming young offenders when they become adults

Some of the state’s most notorious murderers and an accused killer awaiting trial could be named publicly with laws protecting them under the microscope in the government’s long-awaited review.

• Revealed: How predators are hiding in plain sight

Some of the state’s most notorious murderers and an accused killer awaiting trial could be named publicly with laws protecting them under the microscope in the government’s long-awaited review.

Attorney-General Mark Speakman said he will ask the NSW Law Reform Commission to consider whether some juvenile offenders should automatically be identified once they become adults.

His move follows a Saturday Telegraph investigation that reveals how, in one case, a 65-year-old man awaiting trial for the abduction and murder of little Cheryl Grimmer cannot be named because he allegedly confessed to it when he was a juvenile almost five decades ago.

“It’s ridiculous,” one of Cheryl’s brothers, Ricki Nash, 55, said.

NSW Attorney General Mark Speakman will consider whether some juvenile offenders will be identified once they become adults. Picture: AAP Image/Ben Rushton

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The family of building society clerk Janine Balding, who was raped and murdered in 1988, spoke of their frustration that four of the five youths involved in her horrific ordeal were juveniles at the time and cannot be named even now

The culture of secrecy that pervades the state’s administration of justice constantly frustrates the families of victims.

Ms Balding’s brother David, who was 10 when she was abducted from Sutherland railway station, raped and drowned in a dam, said her attackers should have been named when they became adults.

The 65-year-old man accused of the abduction and murder of little Cheryl Grimmer cannot be identified for legal reasons. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Cheryl Grimmer, who was just three-years-old when she was abducted from a beach near Wollongong in 1970.

“They waived all their rights, including their right to privacy as far as I’m concerned,” David Balding said.

And Janine’s killers will never be released.

“They should have been named when they turned 18,” Mr Balding said.

Three of the killers were jailed for life — the only adult was Stephen “Shorty” Jamieson, now 53.

The others were a 16-year-old and 14-year-old Bronson Blessington, who, now 45, has waived his right to anonymity and given media interviews.

Cheryl Grimmer was three when she was abducted at a beach near Wollongong in 1970.

Bronson Blessington. Picture: A Current Affair

Blessington’s victim Janine Balding.

The man accused of killing her was arrested two years ago. It has been revealed in court that he was interviewed by police a year after Cheryl’s disappearance and allegedly gave details of the crime, but it was decided not to charge the then-17-year-old.

Mr Speakman said: “There has been a longstanding general principle that the names of children involved in criminal matters should not be published, in particular as part of rehabilitating and reintegrating young offenders where possible.

“Whether non-publication of a child offender’s name should continue once the offender becomes an adult will be included in the Law Reform Commission review.”

The courts can authorise the release of a juvenile’s name where they have been convicted of a serious offence but rarely do so.

One was Matthew Milat, the great-nephew of serial killer Ivan Milat, who was 17 in 2010 when he tortured and murdered his mate David Auchterlonie, also 17, in the Belanglo State Forest south of Sydney where Ivan Milat killed seven people.