Man pleads guilty to abducting 4-year-old Cleo Smith in Australia
By Angus Watson, CNN
An Australian man accused of kidnapping 4-year-old Cleo Smith and keeping her captive for nearly three weeks last year pleaded guilty on Monday.
Terence Kelly, 36, appeared via video link at Carnarvon Magistrates Court in Western Australia and pleaded guilty to the charge of “forcibly taking a child under 16.”
He is being held in a maximum security prison in the state capital, Perth.
Cleo Smith was found by police in a locked room at Kelly’s home in Carnarvon, just a few streets from where her family lived.
Her disappearance from a nearby campground on October 16 set off an 18-day search that gripped Australia as concern grew over her welfare.
Police said Cleo was found in a room in the house with the lights on, awake and playing with toys.
The case will now move to the District Court of Western Australia and a hearing will take place on March 25. A sentencing date has not yet been fixed.
Kelly faces two further charges including assaulting a police officer, to which he has not yet entered a plea.
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