Cleo Smith

Case background and investigation

Cleo Smith, aged four, lived in the coastal town of Carnarvon, Western Australia, with her mother, stepfather and baby sister. In October 2021 the family went camping at the Quobba Blowholes, a remote site north of the town and about 900 kilometres north of Perth. According to BBC News, it was the first night of their holiday.

Cleo was last seen by her mother when she woke during the night and asked for water. When her parents got up at about 6:00 am on October 16, she and her sleeping bag were gone. ABC News reported that the tent's zip had been opened to a height the child could not have reached. A land, air and sea search began that day, and a task force of more than 100 officers was formed. After about a week the Western Australian government offered a reward of A$1 million.

The BBC reported that campers had heard a car leaving the campground at about 3:00 am, and that detectives worked through statements from people at the campsite, CCTV footage and phone data. Reporting on the later sentencing, the BBC said the breakthrough reportedly came when a mobile phone was traced to a tower near the campsite around the time she was taken.

At about 1:00 am on November 3, 2021, police forced their way into a locked house in Carnarvon, a short drive from the family's home, and found Cleo alone in a room. According to ABC News, she told the officers her name, and Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said the man taken into custody had no connection to her family. She was reunited with her parents the same day.

Terence Darrell Kelly, then 36, was charged the following day with forcibly taking a child under 16. On January 24, 2022, he pleaded guilty to child stealing by video link to Carnarvon Magistrates Court, ABC News reported. On April 5, 2023, Chief Judge Julie Wager of the Perth District Court sentenced him to 13 years and six months in prison, describing the offence as being at the highest level of seriousness. The court heard that he kept Cleo for the full 18 days in a bedroom with a door altered to lock from outside. The judge also acknowledged severe childhood trauma and neurological impairment in his background. He must serve more than 11 years before he can be considered for parole.

Kelly appealed against the length of the sentence. On September 30, 2024, the Western Australian Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, with one of the three judges dissenting on the question of whether the sentence was manifestly excessive, according to ABC News.