Warren McCorriston, a former tourist executive, is facing charges related to the purported kidnapping of a teenage girl over forty years ago.
In order to reexamine the unresolved disappearances and possible killings of three teens from Lake Macquarie in the 1980s—Robyn Hickie, Amanda Robinson, and a third girl—NSW Police established Strike Force Arapaima in 2019.
McCorriston, 62, was taken into custody by police on Monday from a government facility in Silverwater following an unconnected incident, according to investigations.
McCorriston is accused of four offences: abducting a lady against her will with the intention of having her knowledge, threatening to injure someone with the intention of committing an indictable crime, assault resulting in actual physical harm, and detaining someone for personal gain while injuring the victim.
The 16-year-old girl involved in the alleged acts is said to have committed them in Gateshead.
Although McCorriston has been suspected in Amanda and Robyn’s disappearances, no charges have been brought against the two adolescents.
On March 13, McCorriston will appear in Newcastle Local Court while the investigation is ongoing.
On April 7, 1979, at around 7:15 p.m., Robyn, then eighteen, left her home and was last seen at a bus stop near Belmont North on the Pacific Highway.
After attending a dance at her secondary school in Gateshead, Amanda, 14, was last seen strolling along Lake Road in Swansea two weeks later.
After a coroner’s inquest concluded that the girls were dead, most likely as a result of foul play, they were never recovered.
A $1 million reward was given for information leading to the disappearance of the strike force members, two years after the police founded the force.
