Cleo Smith: Search for 'Aussie Madeleine McCann' as public told to check bins for missing girl, 4

Could Maddie McCann have been saved like Cleo Smith?

The painstaking search by Australian police for the missing four-year-old was in stark contrast to that infamous earlier investigation...

By Lucie Morris-Marr Melbourne 7 November 2021 • 5:00am

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Cleo Smith had been dubbed Australia’s Madeleine McCann

In the end it was four simple words which ended 18 days of desperate searching and fading hope – and sparked troubling questions about another missing daughter on another continent.

“My name is Cleo,” uttered four-year-old Cleo Smith as she was found by shocked officers in a bedroom in a locked bungalow in her remote home town of Carnarvon, Western Australia on Wednesday, after her abduction from her family’s tent some 40 miles northwards in a coastal campsite.

Her rescue was declared a “remarkable” result by the emotional Premier of WA, Mark McGowan, and one which appeared to stun those involved in the search as much as the entire nation – as news alerts pinged on phones in unison over breakfast.

The bubbly child had been dubbed Australia’s Madeleine McCann, who went missing at almost exactly the same age. While Cleo was reunited with her overjoyed young parents in hospital, it’s a conclusion which is likely to serve as bittersweet news for Gerry and Kate McCann, whose daughter became a global household name for the worst possible reasons after being snatched from their holiday apartment in Portugal in May 2007.

For 14 long years there has, tragically, been no sign of the toddler – a fact Australians were well aware of as the frantic police search passed the two-week mark, with the public urged to check bins and roadsides for the red sleeping bag that Cleo was sleeping in the night she disappeared.

Her safe rescue triggers new and difficult questions over whether the Portuguese police could and should have done far more in their investigation, especially in those initial hours and days which are so critical in child abduction cases.

There is certainly huge pride in what has been achieved in finding Cleo. McGowan declared in a news conference that the officers, detectives and analysts of the Western Australian Police Force had barely slept, having worked around the clock in their bid to find Cleo alive. He added that he expected their “amazing piece of detective work” would be analysed by police forces across the country and indeed around the world. He could well be right.



The Blowholes campground where Cleo was taken from her tent in the dead of night is one of the most remote holiday locations on earth, over 550 miles north of Perth, surrounded by scrub and endless coastline. It wasn’t the relatively busy Algarve holiday resort of Praia da Luz with hundreds of tourists, locals and resort staff among potential witnesses and suspects.

Cleo, said by police to be thankfully “physically unharmed” is now settling back home, just four miles from where she was discovered.

On Thursday, Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, appeared in court and was charged with “forcibly or fraudulently taking or enticing a child under 16”. He did not apply for bail and was remanded in custody until December 6.

In a short statement issued by police, Cleo’s parents, Ellie Smith and Jake Gliddon, said they wanted to take the opportunity to thank all those involved in her rescue: “We are so thankful that our little girl is back within our arms and our family is whole again.”

A key part of the investigation that led to Cleo’s rescue was the swift clearing of her parents from any suspicion of guilt. Initially, police said they “weren’t ruling anything out” in relation to her bizarre disappearance from her mother and step-father’s tent in the middle of the night. Suspicion unfairly, if perhaps inevitably, fell on them – particularly online – but police extensively monitored the couple and tapped their phones before publicly concluding they were not involved.

One of the many documented faults of the Portuguese investigation was their clumsy policing in the initial hours after Madeleine vanished as she slept alongside her twin siblings.

While the Australian police immediately sealed off the tent where Cleo and her family had been sleeping, in Portugal they failed to make the McCann’s holiday apartment a crime scene. As a result, up to 40 people, including police and resort staff, trampled through the accommodation, literally wiping out any chance of DNA evidence or other forensic clues. An entire volume of evidence was essentially – and possibly fatally – erased.

Madeleine McCann's disappearance: A timeline of the events
May 3, 2007

Kate and Gerry McCann leave their three children — Madeline, Amelie and Sean — asleep in their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, while having an evening meal with friends. Later that night, three-year-old year Madeleine goes missing from her bed. The following day, an investigation is launched into her disappearance by Portuguese police.
May 14, 2007

Robert Murat, an Anglo-Portuguese man, is questioned by the Portuguese police and named an official suspect, or arguido.
August 3, 2007

100 days after Madeleine's disappearance, investigating officers publicly acknowledge that the three-year-old year could be dead.
September 7, 2007

Gerry and Kate McCann are questioned by Portuguese police and are named as official suspects — or arguidos — within the case.
October 2, 2007

Goncalo Amaral, the Portuguese detective in charge of the inquiry, is removed from the case after criticising the British police in a Portuguese newspaper interview. He is later replaced on October 9 by Paulo Rebelo, a senior Portuguese detective.
March 19, 2008

Kate and Gerry McCann are awarded £550,000 libel damages and front-page apologies from the Express Newspapers over allegations they were responsible for their daughter’s death. The apology headline reads — “Kate and Gerry McCann: Sorry”.
July 21, 2008

The Portuguese authorities end their investigation and remove the arguido status of Gerry and Kate McCann as well as Robert Murat.
May 2011

Under the guidance of Home Secretary, Theresa May, Scotland Yard launches Operation Grange. The operation led by the Metropolitan Police Service aims to review the circumstances of Madeline’s death.
April 25, 2017

Met Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley says that the police have “a significant line of inquiry” that is “worth pursuing”, but stresses that there is no "definitive evidence" as to whether Madeleine is dead or alive.
June 5, 2019

The government announces in June 2019, that it will continue to fund Operation Grange until March 31, 2020. The Home Office also confirm that £11.75 million has been spent on the operation since 2011.
June 3, 2020

Scotland Yard identify a German man as the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

The Telegraph’s crime correspondent Martin Evans, who spent months reporting in Portugal on the Madeleine story, recalls how there was also seemingly “no strategy in place” at the inexperienced local force.

“The investigation was flawed from the very start as it was clear the police were totally out of their depth,” Evans says. “They were unsure what they were even investigating for far too long – was it a missing person they were dealing with or an abduction? They had no idea.”

During the Cleo investigation, a thorough and detailed land and sea search, involving helicopters and drones, was called off after a few days, leading local police, backed up by senior detectives flown in from Perth, to focus their resources solely on investigating the abduction theory.

In contrast, the Portuguese police led a chaotic, scatter-gun operation and spent weeks speculating Madeleine may have just wandered off, before slowly exploring other lines of enquiry. Then came the extremely flawed “distractions” to the entire investigation, including the theory the McCanns had killed their own daughter and later placed her body in the boot of a hire car.

This harmful accusation, including declaring the parents “arguidos” (suspects), scuppered the chances of investigating local sex offenders and other vital lines of enquiry for some time.

Writer Miranda Levy witnessed the visceral grief of Kate McCann up close in the Algarve in 2007, when she interviewed her to mark 100 days since Madeleine vanished. By then, suspicion had already turned to her parents: “I found [Kate] heartbroken, fragile, but also resolute,” Levy says. “‘It could have happened to anyone,’ she told me. ‘I feel like the unluckiest person in the world.’”

In 2011, when Scotland Yard started their own inquiry, dubbed Operation Grange, they went back to basics – going over every theory and lead in detail, also carrying out excavations and land surveys near the holiday resort. But by then it was tragically too little, too late.

The Australian police had one major advantage that the Portuguese police didn’t have at their disposal in 2007, being on the right side of the smartphone revolution and abundant CCTV street cameras.

Luck, of course, often plays a role – alongside good old-fashioned policing. After all, it was sheer chance that two 10-year-old British girls were discovered in a flat in January 1999 after going missing for four days after being snatched off the street by paedophile Alan Hopkinson in St Leonard’s, East Sussex. The case dominated the headlines as 300 officers frantically searched for them, yet they were only found because police went to his home to do a spot check in relation to his previous crimes.

In finding Cleo, Australia has its miracle ending. But Levy’s first thoughts, on hearing the happy news, turned to what the McCanns must be feeling. “Relief, that another family won’t have to go through what they suffered, and that a little girl has been reunited with her family?” she wonders. “Or, an ache that this was a happiness denied them: that they still don’t know what happened to Madeleine? Most likely, it’s a mixture of both.”

Last year a German prosecutor declared Christian Brueckner, a prisoner currently behind bars for an unrelated matter, to be the prime suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance. However they have so far failed to release precise details of their evidence and as a result her parents still don’t have closure or final answers.

“For Kate and Gerry McCann, the pain of losing Madeleine never goes away,” note Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, authors of the book Looking for Madeleine. “Every new ‘child missing’ headline must exacerbate that pain. A successful resolution, as in the case of the little girl in Australia, is in happy contrast. Could it be that the McCanns’ persistent badgering of officialdom to find their child, their determination to raise public awareness, has spurred on another police force, helped another stricken family? One can certainly hope so.”

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For the umpteenth time, there is no comparison between the case of Cleo Smith and that of Madeleine McCann. Secondly the crime scene in Portugal was compromised prior to the police alert - it was not a failure on the part on the Portuguese police!

Shame on you Mr Telegraph shame on you

Once again another attack on the Portuguese police and investigation .

As for Operation Grange " going back to basics " what have they achieved in 10 years apart from spending millions of taxpayers money ? 

I think we all know the answer to that , how long will this farce go on .

Indefinitely I think! But you have to admit, they've lost their clout leaving only a few tabloid journalists hanging on to the bowels of the sinking ship.

Having said that, it's always been about the blundering Portuguese police - I'm sure battles have been fought in days of old for lesser crimes. Practically all media reports, chat show sofa interviews, books written and documentaries have focused on the ineptitude of the Portuguese police.

Portugal should take the case to the European Court of Human Rights, Portugal v. United kingdom. They'd have better chance of a hearing and successful outcome than McCann v. Portugal ever had - or will have!

It's pathetic!

The trashing of the Portuguese police by the British press is sickening. Does the Portuguese media report on the perverts we have in various police 'services'?

Whitewashing the McCann's and OG and trashing the PJ once again Had any of these journalists actually read the PJfiles. Had they ever talked about the only finger prints the police found on that jemmied shutters belong to Kate.. ?

In contrast, the Portuguese police led a chaotic, scatter-gun operation and spent weeks speculating Madeleine may have just wandered off, before slowly exploring other lines of enquiry. Then came the extremely flawed “distractions” to the entire investigation, including the theory the McCanns had killed their own daughter and later placed her body in the boot of a hire car.

This harmful accusation, including declaring the parents “arguidos” (suspects), scuppered the chances of investigating local sex offenders and other vital lines of enquiry for some time.

It's total fabrication, journalists should honour their code of ethics and check their facts before going to print.

The prime suspects, Gerry and Kate McCann, were designated 'arguido' early September 2007.  This formality did not prevent the Portuguese police from investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann - at least not by their, the Portuguese, hand.  The ground work, the investigation, had commenced immediately the GNR were alerted on the night of Thursday 3rd May 2007.

It's all documented in the PJ files if the journalists only care to look - only they don't care to look!

Back in 2007 there may not have been the advancements in technology so beneficial to contemporary policing, but that didn't prevent the PJ from carrying out a thorough professional investigation.  If there was any fault with the Portuguese investigation, it was by way of British interference, not Portuguese police ineptitude.

Policing did exist before Bill Gates was a twinkle in the galactic eye.  They relied more on intuition - so much more effective than relying on modern plastic innovation.

All this rubbish exasperates me - it really does.

Cleo Smith: Bombshell in case of missing Australian girl
Amy Harris In Carnarvon For Daily Mail Australia  5 hrs ago
8 Comments

A mystery woman is now central in the Cleo Smith case after the little girl revealed to investigators a female would come to her accused kidnapper's house to 'look after her'.

The bombshell development came to light during delicate police interviews with the four-year-old, who allegedly spent 18 days locked up inside a house in Carnarvon, in Western Australia's northwest.

Local man Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, has been charged with kidnapping and remains in a Perth jail, as a team of elite detectives returned to the remote town on Monday in the hunt for more clues.

Sources close to the investigation told Daily Mail Australia that Cleo has mentioned that a woman visited the Tonkin Crescent duplex during the time she was allegedly held captive, and helped care for her.

It's understood Cleo said the woman helped to dress her and brush her hair.

Cleo was found in the early hours of last Wednesday morning after being missing since October 16, when she was allegedly abducted from her family's tent at the remote blowholes campsite about 75km away.

The preschooler was awake and 'playing with toys' when detectives broke down the door of the house, just after 1.30am.

Bodycam footage shows the brave little girl being carried out the Tonkin Crescent address with her hair clean and brushed and her pyjamas appearing freshly washed. 

Police had initially stated no other suspects were being sought in relation to the matter, alleging that Kelly acted alone.

With the landmark case appearing to be wrapped up, a team of detectives who helped track down Cleo have since raced back to Carnarvon from Perth as they probe the possibility another person was involved. 

The group are expected to remain in the small town for at least another week as forensic specialists continue to scour the alleged abductor's home for evidence another suspect may have been there.

Detective senior sergeant Cameron Blaine, who was captured on police bodycam vision rescuing Cleo from her nightmarish ordeal, has remained tight-lipped about the latest developments in the case but said police have 'more work to do.'   

'Our focus this week is for us to ascertain whether there was anyone else involved. That's why we are still here,' he said after stepping off the plane.

'So, we just ask that if there was anyone that had any contact with Mr Kelly, whether you saw him, whether you met with him, whether you spoke to him on the phone during the relevant period to please make yourself known to police.'

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to WA Police for comment on the mystery woman. 

A spokesperson said investigators would not comment specifically on the major development, but added 'inquiries are continuing'. 

Specialist child interview officers attached to the child abuse squad in Perth began the delicate task of sitting down with Cleo last Thursday.

The process of uncovering what happened could take several weeks.

For a sixth straight day forensic officers have combed through Kelly's house and gathering evidence for laboratory examination which could indicate the presence of another person.

Trailer-loads of evidence have been bagged up and removed from the alleged abductor's property during that time with the top-to-bottom search of the roped-off commission house likely to go on for several weeks as prosecutors build their case against Kelly.

Since his arrest, it's been revealed he had an obsession with collecting dolls and boasted about his love for girl's toys on various social media pages.

One photograph he posted shows Bratz and Disney princess dolls stacked from floor to ceiling.

Just a thought, but being that it now looks likely that Kelly was not working alone, could it be that he is refraining from "Dobbing in" others because he wishes to protect someone with whom he is particularly close?
Could that person be the woman who dressed little Cleo and brushed her hair?
Are we looking at a situation involving multiple accomplices any of whom might be threatening: "If I go down I'm taking you mongrels with me"?

I know I have to tread extremely carefully here but Kelly's "Maximum security" status seems somehow to be at odds with the picture we appear to be getting of someone inexperienced in looking after children who then goes to the trouble of bringing in a woman to take care of the little girl.

Now, at this point I must make it absolutely clear that I believe any decent, sane human being should vehemently condemn Kelly for the part has played in this awful crime but at the same time and in light of this latest revelation, the epithet "Opportunistic monster" no longer seems to accurately describe him.

Having a female accomplice spoils the 'opportunistic' abduction theory, imo. We know now that Kelly was obsesses with the dolls, which makes me think that the accomplice was scouting for a girl. also, the fact that he had a hair brush, and girl's clothes.  Cleo was selected.

CaKeLoveR wrote:Having a female accomplice spoils the 'opportunistic' abduction theory, imo. We know now that Kelly was obsesses with the dolls, which makes me think that the accomplice was scouting for a girl. also, the fact that he had a hair brush, and girl's clothes.  Cleo was selected.

I'm not convinced the doll obsession necessarily implies anything sinister. 
Moreover, I think it highly unlikely that another would share the same weird obsession to the point where they would be willing assist in the procurement of a little girl in order to "Make complete" that bizarre fantasy.

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A family friend of the man accused of kidnapping [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] says the doll-obsessed 36-year-old must have had an accomplice because he doesn't have the 'know-how' to pull off the act alone.
Terence Darrell Kelly has been charged with Cleo's kidnapping and remains in a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] jail after his dramatic arrest last Wednesday. 
Daily Mail Australia exclusively revealed how the brave four-year-old told detectives a mystery woman came to the house to dress her and brush her hair, with police now investigating the possibility another person was involved in her alleged kidnapping. 
Now a family friend of Kelly has revealed she believes he had help in Cleo's 'abduction' because he doesn't have the capacity to carry out such a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] without assistance.
'He wouldn't be because he hasn't got the know-how of how to do things,' Barbara Graham told Nine.
'He would have had someone there to show him what to do and where to go and what.'

Exactly my point. I don't think Cleo would have been clean and well fed, in the care of that grubby, disturbed man.

Also, as for finding a willing accomplice, the McCann's had several. 'We have a pact', alleged one of them.

Something I forgot to mention in my last posting was Kelly's outburst towards the media in court.
I think this may constitute further evidence that others were involved.
I'm not referring to the "What the f*** are they doing here ? " comment but to the "I'm coming for you" comment.

I doubt, as some have suggested that Kelly was directing this particular comment towards those individuals from the media, I think he was relying on them to publish the comment so that a particular person or persons would either read it in a newspaper or see it on the television news.
I could be completely wrong here but to me this sounds like Kelly is relaying a message to an accomplice via the media because he has been stitched up and is letting that person know that he intends to get even with them.

I'm still struggling with the concept of Kelly (or accomplice) driving all that way, picking that campsite, selecting that tent and that compartment to whisk away a little girl and take her back to within miles of her own home. 

Smacks of Sharon Matthews. A family member (or partner thereof) will be involved somewhere.

That is a less unsettling thought than that of Kelly preparing her for whatever he had in mind. First dolls, then a living girl. Ugh.

I think we have cause to question whether Kelly even was the "Abductor".
I get the impression that he was lumbered with the task of looking after the child.Quite clearly he was way out of his depth as he thought that a four year old would still be using nappies !

Also, does this awkward, overweight oddball really fit the profile of a confident, stealthy, panther-like abductor who was able to whisk the child away, sleeping bag and all, without so much as a whisper?

WORLD UPDATED 
Cleo Smith abduction: Detectives yet to find sleeping bag from Blowholes campsite

10 Nov, 2021 08:43 

news.com.au
By: Anthony Piovesan and Angie Raphael

Detectives are still searching for the sleeping bag Cleo Smith was curled up in when she was allegedly snatched from a tent at the Blowholes campsite.

A police spokesperson said it was believed the red and grey sleeping bag was still unaccounted for more than three weeks after Cleo vanished and was still missing today - days after she was found in a locked house in Carnarvon.

Forensic teams are examining other items from the site and the Carnarvon home where the 4-year-old was found after 18 days.

Numerous items have already been collected from Terence Kelly's house, including a mobile phone and a Bratz doll. 

The sleeping bag was deemed a critical item during the search for Cleo, with police releasing an image that was splashed on missing person posters all over the country.

Motorists travelling on the North West Coastal Highway have even been urged to keep an eye out for the item as police conducted searches through roadside bins.

Officers waded through 50 cubic metres of rubbish recovered from bins from Minilya to Geraldton, but the sleeping bag was not found.

Detectives are still searching for the sleeping bag. 

The item also was not found at the home of Terence Kelly, who is behind bars accused of abducting Cleo from her tent.

Further charges could be laid over the alleged abduction of Cleo, but Western Australia's deputy police commissioner ruled out claims that a "mystery woman" was being investigated.

Detective Senior Sergeant Cameron Blaine said this week that police were trying to "ascertain whether there was anyone else involved" in the 4-year-old girl's alleged kidnapping.

Deputy Police Commissioner Col Blanch was asked on Wednesday about reports that a woman was under investigation, as rumours continued to swirl that accused man Terence Darrell Kelly had an accomplice.

"I can rule that one out," Blanch told reporters.

Asked if anyone else knew about Cleo's alleged abduction, he said: "That's all part of the investigation at the moment … my comment is I'm making no comment on the investigation. "

Pressed further about whether police had now ruled out a second person being involved, Blanch said: "The investigation is ongoing — that's all I'll say at this time."

Kelly, 36, has been charged with two offences, including one count of forcibly taking a child aged under 16. He is yet to enter a plea.

Cleo Smith went missing from a campsite at the Blowholes. 

He will remain in a maximum-security prison in Perth until his next court appearance on December 6.

Police continue to guard Kelly's house while forensic officers gather evidence.

They are expected to remain at the scene for several more days.

Cleo Smith was found in a house in her hometown of Carnarvon. 

Numerous items have already been collected from the house, including a mobile phone and a Bratz doll.

Cleo Smith was found on November 4, 18 days after she first went missing.

I don't believe this guy is capable of snatching a child, let alone looking after a child. Maybe keeping an eye on behalf of someone.

He certainly would be a good patsy, with his doll obsession.

"Deputy Police Commissioner Col Blanch was asked on Wednesday about reports that a woman was under investigation, as rumours continued to swirl that accused man Terence Darrell Kelly had an accomplice.

"I can rule that one out," Blanch told reporters.

Asked if anyone else knew about Cleo's alleged abduction, he said: "That's all part of the investigation at the moment … my comment is I'm making no comment on the investigation. "   "





From the above slightly ambiguous quote I think we can logically infer that police haven't ruled out the "Mystery woman" but rather they are simply saying they have yet to identify her.



What is also evident is that news reports are not only referring to Kelly as the alleged abductor, they are referring to the incident itself as an alleged abduction.

Naturally,until it goes to trial and whilst it is yet to be ascertained precisely how many were involved, it is understandable that Kelly is being referred to as the "Alleged" abductor.
In other words, police have good reason to believe that he was not working alone and have yet to establish what part he actually played.

However, the fact that they are still referring to the incident itself as an alleged abduction is interesting.

 Also, being that they are still searching for the sleeping bag, Kelly must for some strange reason  be keeping tight lipped about where he ditched ditched it or alternatively he simply has no knowledge of it....or is it just another item for the "Alleged" list ?!


Now, in the initial phase of the investigation; the period sometimes referred to as "Clearing the ground beneath our feet first", one crucial piece of evidence in my opinion, would have been DNA evidence taken from the alleged glass/water bottle/tumbler etc. from which Cleo allegedly took her 1:30 am drink of water !

It's all very mysterious and frustrating, especially when we are being drip-fed tantalising morsels each day !

Australia’s Madeleine McCann: long road ahead for four-year-old girl found alive after 18 days

11th November 2021

For more than two weeks it cast a pall over Australia, fears mounting with each passing day.

The mysterious disappearance of Cleo Smith was called Australia’s Madeleine McCann story and it’s not hard to see why: a family on holiday, a little girl snatched in the night, distraught parents, a nation united in desperation and an extensive police hunt proving fruitless day after day.

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I suspect it will only be a long road for Cleo if the adults around handle it badly, for example, going on and on about it, and not waiting to see how she herself is dealing with it.

Cleo Smith: Man wrongly identified as abduction suspect sues TV station

Published 1 day ago

An Australian man has launched a defamation case against one of the nation's biggest news channels after it wrongly identified him as an alleged child abductor.

In a missing child case that gripped the nation, Cleo Smith, 4, was rescued from a stranger's home on 3 November.

Police had charged Terence Kelly with her abduction.

But hours after his arrest, Seven wrongly published photos of Terrance Flowers, another Aboriginal man.

His lawyers said Seven had significantly injured his character and reputation by misrepresenting him as the main suspect.

In the rush after Cleo was found, the news organisation had taken four photos from Mr Flowers' Facebook account - where he used his mother's maiden name Kelly - without his consent.

Seven then published them across several broadcasts, an online news article and social media posts where they identified Mr Flowers with headings such as: "Pictured: The man accused of abducting Cleo Smith".

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Awkward !!!

CaKeLoveR wrote:I suspect it will only be a long road for Cleo if the adults around handle it badly, for example, going on and on about it, and not waiting to see how she herself is dealing with it.

They will handle it badly.  That is beyond doubt. By banging on about it, asking questions not just about what happened, but those stupid ones about
"How did that make you FEEL ?" which force you to come up with something, even if in fact IT didn't make you feel anything very much.
Then as soon as they detect a chink in your armour they will magnify it and attempt to treat the wholly invented Psychological condition they believe they have revealed.

After the Kegworth plane on the M-1 we were all offered 'counselling'.
No one turned up, so they made it compulsory.
There were desperate for us all to break down and demonstrate our vulnerability so they could write case History reports (and probably publish them in the journals).
Is it enough to say that it was no different, except in scale, from a major traffic accident. Some dead, some injured, many survivors, mess to clear up a Motorway to block, diversions to put in place for a few days, sandwiches and portaloos to organise, overtime sheets to complete, new shift systems to arrange, etc etc etc etc .
:Ah, but don't you feel for the victims . .  ?"
Er No. Sorry. I don't know any of them, and have got a job to do.  "Please go away and let me get on with it."

Do surgeons and oncologists "feel" for their patients, or do they simply treat them as another interesting specimen to be dealt with, which happens to be attached to a human being ?

The Press will also ensure that she is never allowed to forget about it.   You may count the days to 10 year and 15 year anniversary editions . . . as we know only too well

Absolutely correct. They will destroy Cleo,  and possible her family, because they are 'experts in their field'. They will interfere. tell her parents how to handle her,  and suggest how she will feel in the future. This will all be deliberate. I hope her family can resist this pressure from the psychologists, psychiatrists and their ilk.

Terence Kelly confesses to abducting Cleo Smith from campsite

By Heather McNeill
Updated January 24, 2022 — 1.48pmfirst published at 11.00am

Cleo Smith’s abductor Terence Kelly has confessed to kidnapping the four-year-old from her family tent and keeping her captive for 18 days.
Kelly, 36, was arrested after detectives raided his Carnarvon house at 12.46am on November 3 and found the little girl alone inside a bedroom playing with toys.
 
Terence Kelly was not home when detectives found Cleo. CREDIT:NINE
The next day he was charged with child abduction and flown to Perth where he remains in custody at Casuarina Prison.
During an appearance in Carnarvon Magistrate’s Court on Monday, Kelly pleaded guilty to child abduction via video link.
With a freshly shaved head, Kelly appeared solemn and spent much of the hearing looking down. He spoke only one word, “guilty”, when magistrate Ben White asked him to plead to the kidnapping charge.
He admitted taking Cleo from her family’s tent on October 16 at Quobba Blowholes campsite as her parents slept metres away.
Following one of the largest missing persons investigations in Australian history, she was rescued 18 days later after four detectives stormed his home in a midnight raid.
In the days after Cleo’s rescue, WA Police acting Commissioner Col Blanch said mobile phone data and CCTV footage of a car entering Carnarvon the night Cleo vanished led police to raid Kelly’s house.
More than 10 weeks on, the details of why Kelly took Cleo or how police solved the case have yet to be revealed in court.
Cleo’s family have declined to speak to media since her safe return, only issuing a statement thanking the community for their support and requesting privacy.
Last week it was announced that Nine Network, which publishes this masthead, will pay almost $2 million for an interview with the family in what is believed to be one of the largest deals in Australian television history.
Previous record sums include the $1 million each paid to miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb, who were trapped underground for two weeks in the Beaconsfield mine collapse in Tasmania, and undisclosed amounts paid to survivors of the Lindt Cafe siege.
Before Kelly’s admission, his former neighbour Esther Mingo told media outside court that she hoped Kelly would “open his mouth up” and tell the truth.
She also voiced repeated frustration that none of his family members were attending his court hearings.
“He’s got stacks of family ... Where are his mother and father, why don’t they come here?” she said.
After the hearing, Ms Mingo and two other women refused to speak to the media. His lawyer, Kate Turtley-Chappel, also declined to comment.
Member for the North West Central, Vince Catania, said the guilty plea was a huge relief for the small, coastal town.
“I think this is the start of the healing process for the family, Cleo [and her parents] Ellie and Jake, but also the community of Carnarvon and the whole of Western Australia,” he said.
“It was great to see a sense of community get together to help find Cleo; it’s great obviously for her parents to be able to have their daughter back in their arms. The outcome has been the best we could have hoped for.”
Kelly will appear in Perth District Court on March 25 for a date to be set for his sentencing.
He is also facing a new charge for assaulting a public officer the day after his arrest. He is yet to enter a plea to that charge and the matter was adjourned to February 28.

Source; Sydney Morning Herald [paywalled]

Man who took Aussie Madeleine McCann went to steal valuables but grabbed tot instead

Terence Kelly, 37, has been jailed for the kidnapping of Cleo Smith, the girl dubbed the Australian Madeleine McCann, who was found in his home after an intense 18-day manhunt

News
ByLizzie McAllisterNews reporter

11:35, 9 APR 2023Updated11:54, 9 APR 2023

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Cleo Smith
Cleo Smith was kidnapped in October 2021 (Image: Getty Images)

A man who was jailed for kidnapping four-year-old Cleo Smith had set out to steal valuables from the family before taking the child instead.

Terence Kelly, 37, admitted to snatching the tot, dubbed Australia's Madeleine McCann, from a tent on a campsite where she had been sleeping with her parents and baby sister on October 16, 2021.

Kelly, who has now been sentenced to 13-and-a-half years after he pleaded guilty to stealing the child, unzipped the wall of the tent between 2.40am and 4.40am and took the toddler from where she was sleeping.

READ MORE: Fake Madeleine McCann 'has claimed she was missing child since she was a teen'

At the time he was under the influence of methamphetamines and had gone to the tent to steal valuables, but spotted Cleo and took her instead, a court heard.

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Kelly now faces 13-and-a-half years behind bars (Image: Getty Images)

Kelly took the tot into the front seat of his car and travelled 47 miles to his home in Carnarvon, taking dirt roads to avoid being found.

The man then kept Cleo captive for 18 days as she fought back against his attempts, with him tying her to a chair.

"I just used sticky tape, but it wasn't working. So, I thought, 'I won't tie her up anymore with the sticky tape'," he confessed.

"I tried to tie her to the chair and that with her hands, feet and mouth. I tried to do that. She was a bit of a fighter.”

Kelly also said he "roughed her up a few times" when the child became "bossy" and demanded chocolate, or when she demanded to be returned to her parents.

He said he wanted to keep her in his home so he could dress her up and play with her, and it has since emerged he had an obsession with Bratz dolls.

"I, you know, wanted to hold on to her," he said. "I wasn't planning to keep her forever."

Eventually police identified Kelly as a key suspect thanks to mobile phone signals and a tip-off.

On November 3, officers stormed the drug addict's home just before 1am and carried Cleo to safety.

Judge Julie Wager heard during Cleo's captivity she spent most days trapped in a bedroom on her own.

The sick kidnapper tampered with the door handle so the room could only locked from the outside, and put on the radio to drown out any noise made by the tot.

A psychiatrist asked to analyse Kelly in the case said he suffered from a severe personality disorder after he was neglected in childhood, causing him to create a "fantasy world" in which he had several imaginary children by different women.

Judge Wager said: "The young victim heard her name on the radio and she said they were saying her name."

The judge, sentencing, noted Kelly's troubled childhood but said his risk of re-offending was high.

"You pose a high risk of seriously psychologically harming any future victim in the event that you did re-offend," she said.

Kelly will be eligible for parole in 11 years and six months.

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No, neither does this..

According to Xanthé Mallett, associate professor of criminology at the University of Newcastle, it was extremely rare to find a child safe after such a lengthy time missing, and the case did not fit the pattern of the majority of child abduction cases

Yet still that stone keeps rolling gathering no moss.

Kelly is clearly not of sound mind, thankfully Cleo Smith was returned to her family and if there be any truth in press reports, perhaps Kelly should be housed in a psychiatric unit rather than a prison.

Lesser sentences are dealt for far greater crimes.