Cleo Smith Kidnapper Terrence Darrell Kelly Convicted

kidnapped man Cleo Smith A prison sentence of 13 years and 6 months was handed down from a remote campsite 18 months ago after disturbing details about the girl’s abduction were first heard.

Terrence Darrell Kelly, 37, pleaded guilty last year to charges of forcibly abducting a child under the age of 16. He kidnapped her 4-year-old girl and held her for 18 days.

Kelly snatched Cleo out of a tent on October 16, 2021, while she was sleeping with her mother, stepfather and sister at Blowholes Campground near Carnarvon, about 960km to the north. Perth.

At the time of sentencing, Chief Justice Julie Weiger said, “There are no truly comparable cases to help determine the length of the sentence.

The court also heard chilling new details about the ordeal that left Cleo alone in her bedroom for 18 days, including the moment she heard on the radio that her parents were looking for her.

Kelly turned the radio up to drown out the girl’s desperate pleas to go home to her mother.

He kept Cleo for the entirety of her confinement in Carnarvon’s house, and after modifying the door, locked her in her bedroom for most of the time in between, leaving her for long periods of time while going shopping or visiting relatives. left home for hours.

He later told the police that he felt bad about having Cleo in custody, but got angry with her, saying that he had “roughed her up a few times” when she was “bossy” for chocolate. He also admitted that he had set up

Kelly also attempted to tie the frightened girl’s hands and feet to a chair with sticky tape, but abandoned that plan because “she was a bit of a fighter.”

“I wasn’t going to keep her forever. I was feeling guilty every day and it was a heavy weight on my shoulders,” Kelly said in a police interview.

The judge pleaded for Cleo to be returned to her parents, and Kelly, aware of Cleo’s desperate search, used a loud radio to drown out her pleas.

“When the young victim heard her name on the radio, she said, ‘They said my name,'” said Weiger.

Cleo’s hair was also cut and colored pink during her harrowing ordeal.

Kelly later told police that he was injecting methamphetamine at the time, including just before arriving at the Blowhole campground.

Cleo’s mother, Ellie Smith, and stepfather, Jake Gridon, made a surprise appearance at the ruling, arriving at the Washington District Court in Perth on Wednesday to hear the outcome.

This is the first time the two have been seen together since last year’s 60 Minutes coverage. The couple were reportedly paid $2 million for a world-exclusive television interview.

Kelly, who sat quietly on the docks in a green shirt, is eligible for parole after serving 11 years and six months.

His sentence was backdated to his November 2021 arrest and served up to 20 years in prison.

Kelly will be 48 by the time he is eligible for parole in May 2032.

Judge Wager described the terror, pain and trauma inflicted on Cleo and her parents as “unfathomable.”

“Eighteen days with no communication, no explanation, hours spent alone with her and no access to the outside world must have been very traumatic,” she said.

“In a 4-year-old’s world, a day is a very long time. In a 4-year-old’s world, 18 days is a very long time.

The court heard Kelly had a “considerable interest” in dolls and a Facebook page with “fantasy children.”

Cleo was reported missing on 16 October 2021, igniting one of the largest missing person investigations in Australian history.

She was staying with her family at the Quobba Blowholes Campground, about 960 kilometers north. Perth.

After arriving at the campsite looking for items to steal, Kelly stumbles upon the Smith family’s two-room tent where Cleo and her sister were sleeping in separate compartments.

Kelly opportunistically snatches Cleo, picks her up, along with her sleeping bag, and carries her to the car in “relative silence” to avoid being noticed by her sleeping parents.

Cleo’s parents woke up at a campsite and “for the next 18 days didn’t know if Cleo was alive or dead.”

“They didn’t know what happened to her or if she would come back,” Judge Wager said.

[They were]sad, scared, and confused. They described being scared and unable to sleep… feeling completely empty and broken.

“They stayed where it hurt them so much, hoping that the little girl would be found.”

Judge Wager noted Kelly’s disadvantaged childhood and complex personality, developmental disabilities.

She admitted that Kelly would be “much less likely” to commit a crime had he not been restrained by his illegal drug use.

Earlier Wednesday, Police Commissioner Col Branch described Cleo’s rescue as “the greatest moment in Washington state police history” and hoped the ruling would bring some closure to the family.

The commissioner told ABC, “This is a really big day for families to shut down.

“What everyone must remember is that it has been over 500 days since this incident happened. Relive it.

“So we have to be very sensitive about how sensitive we need to be to Cleo and her extended family.”

Entitled Task Force Rhodia, Cleo’s massive manhunt involved more than 100 police officers.

The Western Australian government has offered a $1 million reward for information on Cleo’s whereabouts.

A police body camera captured the moment a girl was found playing with a toy car in her locked bedroom in the early hours of November 3, 2021. When a police officer asked the girl what her name was, she famously replied, “My name is Cleo.”

In a much-anticipated 60-minute interview a year ago, Smith and her fiancée detailed how Cleo had to leave her bedroom door open and the light on to go to sleep at the time. bottom.

Cleo also woke up screaming from her nightmare.

They added that they still don’t know all the details about what happened because Cleo had “blocked out” the trauma and was hesitant to urge her to talk about it before she was ready. .

“Her emotions have been very ups and downs.. She’s blocked a lot of what happened. She kind of went into survivor mode and kept it very far.

The couple also revealed that the Quobba Blowholes campground is their family’s favorite spot, but they will never go back.