Man identified in attempted abduction cold case with black-and-white photo 43 years later

Australia Broadcast Center

19-06-2025

The New South Wales District Court has heard Warren John McCorriston is wanted on charges in Queensland, after admitting to the attempted abduction of a teenager near Newcastle more than four decades ago.
In April the 64-year-old pleaded guilty to attempting to abduct the woman with the intention of having sexual contact with her.
In agreed facts tendered to the District Court in Newcastle, he admitted to detaining the 17-year-old girl for advantage at Gateshead, south of Newcastle, on a night in 1980, when he was 19.
On the night of the crime, the woman got off a bus near her house after going to the movies in Newcastle to see the film 10.
Minutes later the man approached in a red car.
McCorriston got out, chased the woman, said he had a knife and dragged her towards his car.
She broke free, hid in bushes near neighbouring houses, before he left in his car.
"The Crown contends, and the offender accepts, that his intention was to force her into his car so that he could seek to have sexual contact with her," the police facts stated.
In the District Court on Thursday, McCorriston was identified as the man responsible for the abduction attempt for the first time, after the court lifted a non-publication order.
Crown Prosecutor Paul Marr told his sentencing hearing about the day the woman identified her attacker.
"One can only wonder the impact on her, 43 years later she chooses one of 20 people in a black-and-white photo array and she chooses him.
"He is prosecuted and he admits he is the person who accosted her on that evening.
Agreed facts tendered in court said the girl told close friends at the time, but did not report McCorriston to police until 2023.
"This occurred when the victim was watching a television show about Gordana Kotevski, a 16-year-old girl who went missing from Charlestown in the mid 1990s," the police facts said.
"She rang Crime Stoppers after watching the television program."
McCorriston is due to be sentenced on Thursday, June 26.
Defence barrister Ben Bickford told the court McCorriston was only a teenager himself at the time of the offending.
"None of [the] submissions I've made are intended to downplay this or how frightening it was for the victim," Mr Bickford said.
Mr Bickford said his client was remorseful and on a path to rehabilitation.
Mr Marr said McCorriston could not blame youth, saying he is wanted for alleged offending in his 50s in Queensland.
"There are a number of outstanding allegations that the offender is yet to face in Queensland," Mr Marr said.
"The date of the allegations has [the] offender at about 58 years of age at the time of the allegations being made."