Man pleads guilty to abducting 4-year-old Australian Cleo Smith

Name: ‘My name is Cleo,’ Australian 4-year-old girl found alive 18 days after abduction
Uploaded: 2022-01-24T06:52:53.000Z
Duration: 1 min 27 s
Description: ‘My name is Cleo,’ Australian 4-year-old girl found alive 18 days after abduction

Cleo Smith went missing last year during a family camping trip in a case that shocked Australia. She was rescued 18 days later

Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, pleaded guilty on Monday via video link from a maximum-security prison to a charge of forcibly taking a child under 16

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Cleo Smith, 4, waves as she sits on a hospital bed after her rescue. Photo: Western Australia Police via AP

Reuters

Published: 2:52pm, 24 Jan 2022Updated: 3:02pm, 24 Jan 2022

An Australian man pleaded guilty on Monday to a charge of abducting a 4-year-old girl from an outback campsite, the Western Australia justice department said, speeding up the resolution of a case that shocked the country.

Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, pleaded guilty to a charge of forcibly taking a child under 16 during a court appearance via video link from a maximum-security prison in Perth, said a department spokesman.

He was charged in November with kidnapping Cleo Smith after she went missing in the middle of the night during a family camping trip at the remote Blowholes Shacks campsite in Macleod, about 900km (560 miles) north of Perth.

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‘My name is Cleo,’ Australian 4-year-old girl found alive 18 days after abduction

He was accused of holding the child for 18 days until police rescued her, apparently unharmed, from his locked house at Carnavon, 100km away. Media reports said Kelly’s home was a few streets from the house where the child lived with her family.

The guilty plea spares Cleo’s family the prospect of a lengthy trial, which might have required them to testify or otherwise relive the ordeal under intense public scrutiny.

Her parents have not made any public comment other than a statement saying they were happy when she was found. Prosecutors have not disclosed a motive.