Cleo Smith: Accused kidnapper Terence Darrell Kelly to appear in Carnarvon court on Monday
The man accused of abducting Cleo Smith is set to front court in Carnarvon on Monday — four weeks after the four-year-old was dramatically rescued from a locked room inside his home.
Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, is due to appear by video-link in Carnarvon Courthouse on Monday from the maximum-security Casuarina Prison on charges including forcibly taking a child under 16.
It will be the first time Mr Kelly has been seen in public since he was pictured boarding a plane especially chartered to fly him to Perth escorted by officers from the Department of Justice’s special operations group.
That came after police revealed Mr Kelly had self-harmed twice in the cells and had to be taken to hospital for treatment.
It also followed Mr Kelly’s bizarre court outburst in which he threatened reporters, telling them he was “coming” for them.
“What the f… are the media doing here?” he asked, to which Magistrate Benjamin White replied: “It’s an open court”.
According to those who know him, Mr Kelly was a “loner”.
He is understood to have had a room inside his house filled floor to ceiling with dolls, boasting of his love for the Bratz toys on his social media profiles.
At least one doll formed part of a vast collection of evidence hauled out over a nine-day forensic search of Mr Kelly’s Tonkin Crescent duplex home.
It is believed that a mountain of evidence was taken to Perth for further testing in the State’s forensic laboratory as police compile their brief of evidence to be used in court.
Cleo had been missing for 18 days before four police officers forced their way into Mr Kelly’s locked house shortly before 1am on November 3 and found the little girl in a room, with the lights on, playing with a toy.
A short time earlier, Mr Kelly was arrested after he was stopped in his car on the nearby Robinson Street.
Police, who held “grave” fears for the little girl, announced the astonishing news just hours later, which made headlines around the world and was splashed on the front page of newspapers across the country.
Cleo’s mother Ellie Smith took to Instagram to confirm: “Our family is whole again.”
The four hero police officers who personally rescued Cleo, led by Detective Senior Sergeant Cameron Blaine, and the rest of the 140-strong taskforce behind the search were honoured at a Government House ceremony last week.
Cleo’s mother and stepfather Jake Gliddon were also in attendance after making the 900km trip from Carnarvon.
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