‘Must have terrified her': Warren John McCorriston learns fate 45 years after attempting to abduct teen for sex
A teenager was just 500m from her house when she turned to see a man running towards her in a terrifying attempted abduction, with the cold case finally closed more than 40 years later.
Warren John McCorriston was arrested in January 2024 over the attempted abduction of a teenage girl in the Lake Macquarie region of NSW in 1980.
The NSW District Court was told how the girl had caught the bus home after seeing a movie with her boyfriend on that night, 45 years ago.
Her boyfriend got off before her, and the bus dropped her just 500m from her home.
'The street was dark. As she walked out a car pulled in front of her,' Judge Timothy Gartelmann told a sentence hearing on Thursday morning.
Walking past the car, she heard footsteps behind her and turned to see McCorriston running towards her.
She tried to run, but he grabbed her from behind and held her tight around her waist, telling her to go with him.
When she screamed, he threatened her by saying he had a knife: She couldn't see one, and there was no evidence he had one.
'But the threat of it must have terrified her,' Judge Gartelmann said.
McCorriston kept asking the teen to go to his car with him, telling her 'he just wanted her to come to the car – he didn't want to do anything but sit in the car and talk'.
However, it was agreed that he was trying to force her into the car so he could have sex with her.
McCorriston, who was then 18, just a couple years older than the girl, eventually let her go and she ran towards her house before stopping short – she didn't want him to see where she lived.
He drove away before pulling a U-turn, staring towards her after she crossed the road.
'She stood her ground. He got back into his car and drove away,' Judge Gartelmann said.
She waited for a little in case he came back before going home.
The court was told that she didn't tell her father about it as she thought she wouldn't be allowed out again if she did.
The teen told some of her friends about it but didn't report it to police until 2023 – 43 years after the attempted abduction – after watching a television show about a girl who'd gone missing in the mid 1990s.
She managed to identify McCorriston after she was shown a series of photographs, including one of McCorriston taken in the mid 1980s.
The court was told McCorriston initially didn't remember attempting to abduct the teenager, with a psychologist noting he came to accept he committed the offences after reading the brief of evidence.
He pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, detain for advantage and cause injury to victim, and detain for advantage without causing injury to victim.
The psychologist also reported McCorriston had said therapy helped him understand the trauma he'd caused the victim, and he expressed feelings of guilt and remorse.
However, sentence assessment report notes said he'd initially tried to justify the offence by saying his father's negative example had influenced him.
The court was told McCorriston had a difficult life and had undergone several rehabilitative courses and programs while in custody for other offences.
He had also been convicted of other offences, including sexual and violent offences in the early 1980s and late 1990s; however, he hadn't been convicted or sentenced for any offence at the time of the attempted abduction.
Judge Gartelmann said the 'extensive' delay in proceedings didn't warrant mitigation in sentencing but McCorriston's progress in rehabilitation did, and the likelihood of him reoffending appeared to be low to moderate.
McCorriston was sentenced to two years and three months' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of one year and three months.
However, he was in custody for other offences at the time of his arrest, with Judge Gartelmann ruling that McCorriston had already served the non-parole period.
He directed McCorriston to attend the registry to authorise his release on Thursday morning.
His sentence has 12 months remaining, expiring on February 7, 2026.
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