‘Must have terrified her’: Warren John McCorriston learns fate 45 years after attempting to abduct teen for sex

When a young man returned to see a man running towards him in an attempt to kidnap, he was only 500 m from his home, the cold case finally closed 40 years later.

Warren John McCorriston was arrested in January 2024 due to an attempt to kidnap a young girl in the Macquarie area of ​​Lake NSW in 1980.

The NSW Regional Court was told how the girl was caught on the bus after watching a movie with her boyfriend that night 45 years ago.

His boyfriend landed before him and the bus dropped him only 500 meters from his house.

Judge Timothy Gartelmann said to a sentence hearing on Thursday morning, “The street was dark.

He crossed the car and heard footsteps behind him and turned to see McCorriston running towards him.

He tried to run, but he grabbed him from behind and held him tight around his waist, and told him to go with him. When he screamed, he threatened him, saying he had a knife: he couldn’t see anyone and there was no evidence.

“But the threat must have terrified him,” Judge Gartelmann said.

McCorriston continued to ask the young man to go to his car and said, “He just asked him to come to the car – he didn’t want to do anything but sit in the car and talk.”

However, he was accepted that he was trying to force him to the car so he could have sex with him.

McCorriston, who was 18 years old at that time, just a few years older than the girl, finally allowed him to go and ran to his house before he stopped – he didn’t want him to see where he lived.

After passing the path, he looked at him and walked away before he pulled a U -turn.

Edi He stood in his way. He went back to his car and walked away, G Judge Gartelmann said.

He waited a little if he came back before he went home.

The court was told that he did not explain it because he thought that his father would not be allowed again.

Young told some of his friends, but after watching a television show about a girl who was missing in the mid -1990s, 2023 – 43 years after the kidnapping attempt did not report to the police.

After showing a series of photographs, including one of the McCorriston taken in the mid -1980s, he managed to identify McCorriston.

The court told the court that McCorriston initially did not remember trying to kidnap young people, and that a psychologist accepted that he had committed crimes after reading the summary of the evidence.

He was found guilty of detention for the advantage, causing injury to the victim and detaining the advantage without causing injury to the victim.

The psychologist also said that McCorriston helps to understand the trauma caused by the therapy and expresses his feelings of guilt and regret.

However, the sentence assessment report notes, saying that his father affected the negative example of him at the beginning trying to justify the crime, he said.

The court was told that McCorriston had a difficult life and had a few rehabilitation courses and programs while detained for other crimes.

He was also convicted of other crimes, including sexual and violent crimes in the early 1980s and in the late 1990s; However, he had not been convicted or convicted of any crime at the attempt to kidnap.

Judge Gartelmann said that the “comprehensive” delay in the proceedings did not require reduction in punishment, but McCorriston’s progress in rehabilitation and the likelihood of reorganization appeared to be low to low.

McCorriston was sentenced to one year and three months and three months in prison for a non -parole.

However, at the time of his arrest, he was detained for other crimes, decided that Judge Gartelmann McCorriston had already served in a non -parole period.

He directed McCorriston to join the registry to allow his release on Thursday morning.

On February 7, 2026, the sentence remained 12 months.