A Brisbane man accused of kidnapping a 20-month-old toddler from a home while the family slept has been refused bail and held in custody.
The 31-year-old man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, appeared briefly this morning in Richlands Magistrates Court, south-west of Brisbane, on charges of child stealing and entering a dwelling at night.
CCTV vision allegedly captured the man taking the boy from his home in Darra in south-west Brisbane, just after 4:00am on Sunday.
The court heard he entered the home wearing a mask and gloves and took the sleeping child from his cot.
Police issued a public alert for the toddler and found him unharmed six hours later at a boarding house in Salisbury on Brisbane's southside.
The man allegedly told police he had mental health issues with undiagnosed schizophrenia and "heard voices".
He is next due to appear in court via video link on March 29.
'We still want answers'
The child's step-grandfather, who also cannot be identified, said outside court the family appreciated the public response to the alert and were still trying to fathom what happened.
He said the boy was "fine, he's safe, he's back being happy again with the family".
"But we are very, very upset, still grieving at the fact of what's happened, there were several kids at home at the time it happened," he said.
"We don't know why, we can't say why — we still want answers as a family."
He said the family had known the accused for only several months and he had "come across as a nice young person".
