Australia
Cleo Smith case: Kidnapper has to go to prison for a long time
Feared for Cleo’s life for two and a half weeks: mother Ellie Smith and stepfather Jake Gliddon (middle). photo
© Aaron Bunch/AAP/dpa
A year and a half ago, the kidnapping of a little girl in Australia had half the world in suspense. The pronouncement of the verdict will provide answers to many open questions for the first time.
The kidnapping of little Cleo Smith in Australia made headlines around the world in 2021 – now the verdict has been passed against the accused: 13 years and six months in prison, the competent court in Perth announced.
The 37-year-old, who had pleaded guilty, faced up to 20 years in prison on charges of kidnapping. However, Judge Julie Wager recognized his difficult childhood and early admission of guilt as mitigating circumstances, Australia’s Guardian reported.
Traumatic experience
However, the kidnapping caused “immeasurable fear and distress,” said Wager. The effects of the act on the child and his parents are permanent. “18 days without contact or explanation and being completely alone for hours with no access to the outside world is very traumatic for a child.” Also in court were mother Ellie Smith and Cleo’s stepfather.
Flashback: Cleo, then four, is on a camping trip with her family in Point Quobba, about 75 kilometers north of her hometown of Carnarvon. It’s October 16, 2021 when the mother wakes up in the family tent to find Cleo is gone. Her sleeping bag is gone too. The horror grows when it becomes clear: the zip at the entrance has been pulled up so far that the child cannot have opened it himself.
No sign of Cleo
The police set up a 100-strong special commission. Meanwhile, the desperate parents keep making dramatic calls to the public. The Western Australian state government is even offering a reward of one million Australian dollars (around 614,000 euros) for information leading to the girl’s finding – but all the alleged sightings initially come to nothing.
Finally, after 18 days, the redeeming news: Cleo is discovered safe and sound in a house – surprisingly in her hometown. In a first photo, she can be seen waving in the hospital bed a little later, wrapped in a white blanket. The owner of the house is arrested on a street nearby. Since then, many questions about the motive and Cleo’s imprisonment have remained unanswered – questions to which Judge Wager has now given answers.
Drugs, Alcohol, Violence
The accused suffers from a “severe and complex personality disorder” and was on drugs that night. He was already exposed to drugs and alcohol in the womb, and his childhood was marked by violence. “I fully accept that your personality disorder was caused by the environment you grew up in and the deprivations you endured as a child,” Wager said. There are no really comparable cases.
Psychiatrists hired by the court said the man had always wanted a family of his own. Judge Wager said that despite living an isolated life, he created a “fantasy family” and created social media profiles pretending to have children. The large collection of dolls found at his home fits that wishful thinking.
He locked Cleo in a bedroom where she was alone most of the time. Sometimes he turned the radio up loud so she couldn’t be heard. “She begged to go to her parents,” the judge said. “Her parents didn’t know if she was alive or dead. They didn’t know what had happened to her or if she would ever come back.”
The police chief of Western Australia spoke of a “heinous crime”. What the family went through is “every parent’s nightmare”. The convict may apply for early release on parole. According to the broadcaster 9News, he could be released in 2033 at the earliest.