On 4 November 2021, police charged 36-year-old Carnarvon resident Terence Darrell Kelly with two offences including one count of forcibly taking a child under 16. He appeared before the Carnarvon
Magistrates Court and did not apply for bail. The matter returned to court on 6 December 2021. Kelly was flown to Perth on 5 November 2021 and was transferred to
Casuarina Prison. He appeared via video link and pleaded guilty to one count of child stealing, but did not enter a plea on a charge of assaulting a public officer. The assault charge was subsequently downgraded to obstructing police officers, to which he pleaded guilty on 30 January 2023 and was fined . On 5 April 2023, Kelly was sentenced in Perth District Court to 13-and-a-half years in jail. Kelly will be eligible for parole after serving 11-and-a-half years. On 30 September 2024, Kelly failed in his appeal to reduce his sentence.
Background of perpetrator Kelly was born in
Wickham, Western Australia, to
Indigenous Australian parents. His parents were alcoholics who were frequently violent towards each other and their children. He was subject to
child protection intervention and at the age of two was placed into the care of his aunt Penny Walker, whom he referred to as his grandmother. He was diagnosed with
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and
oppositional defiant disorder at a young age and at the age of twelve was hospitalised due to suicidal ideation. He was expelled from school due to violent, antisocial and inappropriate behaviour. Prior to his conviction for Smith's abduction, Kelly had previously served a prison sentence for burglary and aggravated burglary offences, as well as receiving a fine for the possession of
methamphetamine. He was released from prison in 2017 and returned to living with Walker. Kelly was raised in the same household as Ashley James Bropho, Walker's biological grandson. In 2023, Bropho was convicted of abducting and sexual assaulting a nine-year-old girl in Perth. Bropho was murdered by a fellow inmate at
Hakea Prison in March 2023. Kelly had a collection of "dozens" of
Bratz dolls, some of which were preserved in their original packaging. He made a number of social media posts featuring photographs and videos of him with the dolls. He had also developed fantasies of himself as a father, creating Facebook pages for his own fictitious children and communicating with them; he falsely told police that the children were real. A medical assessment prior to his sentencing found that he was "severely fragile, disturbed and fragmented identity" and described him as "detached, anti-social, depressive and narcissistic with a severe personality disorder and paranoid schizophrenia with
complex post-traumatic stress disorder, a moderate depressive disorder and anxiety". He was described by his neighbours as very quiet and an oddball but had not been under suspicion by them. He had fallen under police suspicion the day before his arrest. The person misidentified claimed that the incident led to him receiving death threats and required him to undergo medical treatment following a severe
panic attack; in response he planned to sue Seven for defamation. The defamation case was resolved in February 2022, with
Seven West Media agreeing to pay out a settlement deal. ==See also==