36-year-old Terence Darrell Kelly on Monday pleaded guilty to the charges of child stealing at an Australian court. Kelly was charged for kidnapping four-year-old Cleo Smith and holding her at his home for 18 days, according to a report by the BBC.
Cleo Smith’s disappearance caught the attention of the entire Australia with many citizens wishing for her quick return to her parents. Cleo Smith was found unhurt and ‘as well as we could expect in the circumstances’, according to Western Australia Police Force officials earlier on November 3. Cleo disappeared from her family’s tent at a campsite where they were holidaying at the Quobba Blowholes camping ground on October 16.
Terence Darrell Kelly is remanded to custody until March after which he will have to face proceedings at the Perth District Court. He is expected to be sentenced at a later date.
Cleo’s disappearance led to a widespread search and rescue operation in Macleod, Carnarvon and adjoining areas involving more than 100 police officers. The police used reconnaissance planes, drones and rode on horseback and searched a 600km stretch of roadside rubbish to get a lead on the whereabouts of Cleo.
They also checked the whereabouts of registered sex offenders in the area, close to 20 such people, in order to get a lead. Terence Darrell Kelly was not listed among them.
The first opening in the case came when they traced a mobile number to a phone tower near the campsite close to the time when Cleo was allegedly abducted. Cleo’s mother said that her daughter was sleeping on an air mattress next to her younger sister’s cot. Investigators suspected that Cleo was abducted around 01:30 and 06:00 am.
Before tracing the mobile number, campers alerted the police regarding a car leaving the campsite at Quobba Blowholes around 3am in the morning and it was later confirmed by another motorist. She was found six minutes away from her family home in Carnarvon. Police officials forcibly removed Kelly before arresting him. Kelly was also charged with attacking a police officer.
Cleo was found unhurt and ‘bubbly and laughing’ while chewing on an icy pole which she claimed was ‘sticky’, according to the Western Australia Police officials.
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