Little Boy Lost: Sydney Morning Herald
Little boy lost: How a brutal paedophile groomed this small-town boy
It was January 1987. A sweltering summer day in a small town in south-east Australia; the kind of day where the seatbelts in the Kingswood burn kids’ bums and families get hot chips for dinner because mum’s too tired to get up from in front of the fan.
Eight-year-old Nathan Spiteri was packed into the local swimming pool with his mates and pretty much the entire population of his home town of Queanbeyan, NSW. The rowdy boys drew stern looks from sunbaking teens and parents as they bombed, splashed and shouted.
Nathan will never know what it was about him that drew the attention of a man sitting on a towel, watching the pool intently. It may have been his dark hair and skin (he’s of Maltese heritage). It may have been his exceptionally loud fluoro Hang Ten board shorts. Or his master bombing ability.