Missing four-year-old Cleo Smith found ‘alive and well’ in Western Australia
A 36-year-old man has appeared in court charged with the abduction of four-year-old Cleo Smith.
Terry Kelly appeared briefly at Carnarvon Magistrates’ Court on Thursday faced with a string of charges, including forcibly taking a child under 16.
He was refused bail and is expected to appear again in court on 6 December.
It comes after Cleo vanished from her family’s tent in the early hours of 16 October at the remote Blowholes Shacks campsite in Macleod, sparking a huge search.
The youngster was found safe on Wednesday after police raided a locked house in Carnarvon, a town about 62 miles south of the campsite and just two miles from her family home.
She had been playing with dolls with the light on inside a room at the time, police said.
In an audio recording released by police of the moment Cleo was found, an officer can be heard saying “We’ve got her, we’ve got her” as another asks the child “What’s your name, sweetheart?” After being asked a third time, the child finally responds: “My name is Cleo.”
Cleo’s mother, Ellie Smith, said her “family is whole again” after the youngster was reunited with her parents, while Australian prime minister Scott Morrison described the breakthrough as “a huge relief”.
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