'Breakthrough' in case of UK girl, 3, who vanished from Australian beach 47 years ago

A man whose three-year-old sister went missing from a shower block almost 50 years ago has made an emotional plea after police announced a "breakthrough".

Cheryl Grimmer vanished from inside a beach shower block in Wollongong, Australia, in 1970, not long after her family emigrated from Britain.

Cheryl's parents received a ransom note for $10,000 shortly after the abduction on January 12, but nobody turned up to claim the money.

A huge search failed to find the toddler, who is believed to have been murdered.

Now Australian police have put out an appeal to trace what would have been a teenage boy - now in his sixties - seen running towards woodland from where Cheryl vanished.

Since the police revelation, Cheryl's brothers - Ricki, Stephen and Paul - have called on the potential killer to turn themselves in.

Ricki Grimmer was with his sister shortly before the time of her disappearance.

He had failed to get her to leave the shower block and decided to fetch his parents, but by the time they returned just minutes later, Cheryl had disappeared.

At a press conference on Monday, Mr Grimmer said he was still living with the "heartache" of the decision 46 years ago to leave his sister and fetch their parents, when he was eight years old.

"Heartache… decisions I made on the day were wrong. I shouldn't have left. What do you say? What do you do? It's affected me all my life", he said.

"Everyone says it wasn't my fault but come and stand where I'm standing, see what it feels like.

"Just let us know where she is, give us something so we can mourn. It's cost me and my family everything".

Police said they made the breakthrough about the teenager when reviewing boxes full of files following a family re-enactment of the day at Fairy Meadow Beach.

The new suspect was described at the time as caucasian, aged between 16 and 17, about 152cm tall with a medium build, brown hair, blue eyes and fair complexion.

Both of Cheryl's parents have died without knowing what happened to their daughter.