Tourism executive is charged over the disappearance of teenager who vanished 44 YEARS ago
A jailed former tourism executive who once told a victim she “deserved to suffer” has been accused of kidnapping another woman 44 years ago.
Warren McCorriston, 62, was jailed in 2021 for brutally raping and assaulting two women between 1980 and 1997, and was arrested this week over the alleged 1980 kidnapping.
He was arrested by detectives investigating the cold case disappearances and suspected murders of 16-year-old Gordana Kotevski and two other Lake Macquarie teenagers.
Gordana, Robyn Hickie and Amanda Robinson went missing between 1979 and 1994.
The renewed investigation into the trio of disappearances revealed information about the 1980 incident.
Former tourism director Warren McCorriston (pictured center) was charged over the 1980 disappearance of a teenage girl
Amanda Robinson (pictured) went missing in the Lake Macquarie area
The alleged victim has told police she was taken from Gateshead in the Lake Macquarie area and was injured by a man but survived.
The prisoner, who would have been 18 or 19 years old at the time, now faces four historic charges, including the forcible kidnapping of a woman with intent to acquire carnal knowledge.
He is scheduled to appear in court on March 15.
Rewards of $1 million remain available for information leading to convictions in any of the disappearances involving Gordana, Robyn and Amanda.
Despite extensive research, no trace of the girls has been found.
Robyn Hickie was 18 when she left her home around 7:15 PM on April 7, 1979 and was last seen at a bus stop on the Pacific Highway, Belmont North.
McCorriston has been arrested over the cold case disappearances and suspected murders of 16-year-old Gordana Kotevski and two other Lake Macquarie teenagers
Robyn Hickie (pictured) was 18 when she left her home on the night of April 7, 1979, and was last seen at a bus stop on the Pacific Highway, Belmont North before she went missing.
A fortnight later, 14-year-old Amanda Robinson was last seen walking along Lake Road, Swansea, on April 21, after attending a dance at her secondary school in Gateshead.
A coronial inquiry into their disappearances found the teenagers were dead, most likely the result of foul play.
Gordana is also suspected to be dead after she was last forced into a car in Powell Street, Charlestown, at around 9pm on November 24, 1994.
“Not a day goes by that we don’t think about the what-ifs,” Gordana’s aunt Julie Talevski said in 2022.
“Gordana was young, happy, innocent, and then she was gone.”