By Sammie Jones-
A man has pleaded guilty on Monday to abducting a 4-year-old girl from her family’s camping tent on Australia’s west coast last year.
Police found Cleo Smith alone in a house in the snmall western Australian town of Carnarvon, a town of 5,000 people, 18 days after she went missing last October. The search for her had captivated Australians, and the police who found her wept with relief when she told them, “My name is Cleo,” when they asked her identity.
Police have said the man arrested soon after Cleo’s rescue was a stranger to the girl and her family, but they have given little other information about why he was a suspect.
Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, admitted to the abduction during a brief court appearance in Carnarvon in a video link from a Perth prison, 900 kilometers (560 miles) to the south.
The clip of the police who found her weeping with relief when she told them, “My name is Cleo,” when they asked her identity was seen around the world.
Further details then emerged about Kelly, including his obsession with Bratz dolls, of which he kept dozens in a room at his house, some still in their boxes.
It was claimed he was a regular customer at the local toy store where he asked to have dolls wrapped for his “daughters”.
The moment Cleo is found by police and told she would be “taken to see her mummy and daddy”
Police have said the man arrested soon after Cleo’s rescue was a stranger to the girl and her family, but they have given little other information about why he was a suspect.
Kelly faces a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison on a conviction of forcibly taking a child aged under 16.
He will next appear in a Western Australian state District Court in Perth on March 20.
Cleo disappeared on October 16 while camping with her family at the Blowholes campsite in Macleod, near Carnarvon.
He faces a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison on a conviction of forcibly taking a child aged under 16. He will next appear in a Western Australian state District Court in Perth on March 20.
Kelly has not entered a plea to other criminal charges he faces, including assaulting a public officer. Those charges have been adjourned to a later date.
Kelly, who was wearing a grey t-shirt in the video link and was bearded, was represented by defence lawyer Kate Turtley-Chappel and spoke only to enter his guilty plea.
He did not enter a plea to a new charge of assaulting a public officer.
He was remanded in custody until his next appearance in WA’s District Court in March, when a date may be set for his sentencing.
Kelly’s grandmother Esther Mingo attended the hearing and spoke to reporters ahead of his appearance.
She said she just wanted the “truth” to emerge.
“I’m upset, I’m angry for him coming to court,” she said