Charges Brought Against Suspect 44 Years After Alleged Abduction of Australian Teen
Gordana, Robyn Hickie and Amanda Robinson went missing between 1979 and 1994.
A jailed former hospitality executive who once told a victim she “deserved to suffer” has been accused of abducting another woman 44 years ago.
The 62-year-old man, jailed in 2021 for brutally raping and assaulting two women between 1980 and 1997, was arrested this week over the alleged 1980 abduction.
He was arrested by detectives investigating the cold case disappearances and suspected murders of 16-year-old Gordana Kotevski and two other Lake Macquarie teens.
Gordana, Robyn Hickie and Amanda Robinson went missing between 1979 and 1994.
The renewed investigation into the trio of disappearances uncovered information about the 1980 incident.
The alleged victim has told police she was taken from Gateshead in the Lake Macquarie area and injured by a man, but survived.
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The prisoner, who would have been aged 18 or 19 at the time, now faces four historical charges including forcible abduction of a woman with intent to carnally knowledge.
He is next due to face court on March 15.
Rewards of $1 million (US$659,960 million) remain on offer for information that leads to convictions in any of the disappearances involving Gordana, Robyn and Amanda.
Despite extensive investigations no trace of the girls has been found.
Robyn Hickie was 18 when she left her home around 7.15pm on April 7, 1979, and was last seen standing at a bus stop on the Pacific Highway, Belmont North.
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 high school in Gateshead.
A coronial inquest into their disappearances found that the teenagers were dead, most likely as a result of foul play.
Gordana is also suspected to be dead after she was last seen being forced into a car on Powell Street, Charlestown, about 9pm on Nov. 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, joyous, innocent, and then she was gone.”
