Terence Kelly jailed for 13 years for abducting Cleo Smith

A man has been sentenced to 13 years and six months in jail for abducting a four-year-old girl from a remote campsite in Western Australia.

Terence Kelly, 37, admitted to taking Cleo Smith from her family’s tent in October 2021, and she was found alive 18 days later at his house, minutes away from her own home.

Kelly kept Cleo locked in a bedroom with the door modified to be lockable from the outside and turned up the radio to drown out her cries for her mother.

The court heard that he suffered from a neurological impairment caused by severe childhood trauma and used methamphetamine.

In an impact statement, Cleo’s parents expressed the permanent trauma they experienced as a result of Kelly’s crime.

Kelly will serve more than 11 years before being eligible for parole.

Cleo was last seen by her mother when she asked for a glass of water in the middle of the night at the campsite. The next morning, her mother discovered Cleo and her sleeping bag missing and the tent door open.

Kelly took Cleo from the tent “in relative silence” between 02:40 and 04:40. The police found Kelly’s locked house in Carnarvon, where Cleo was inside alone, after tracing a mobile phone number to a phone tower near the campsite around the time of the abduction.

Kelly felt guilty for taking Cleo and had not been planning to keep her, the court heard.