Cleo Smith's mother speaks out after abductor's sentencing
Cleo Smith's mother has shared her thoughts on the jail sentence handed down to the man who abducted her four-year-old daughter.
Ellie Smith was in Western Australia's District Court on Wednesday when Terence Kelly was sentenced to 13 years and six months behind bars for abducting Cleo in October 2021.
Shortly after the sentence was handed down, Ellie and her partner Jake Gliddon shared they will always feel "angry" towards Terence.
"I think the anger always will be there," Ellie Smith told Nine News.
However, she added she "also feels contentment he is behind bars".
"And we do have a number to hold with us of how long he is away."
"But there is always going to be anger, always - how could there not be?" she added.
While Ellie and Jake largely avoided the media outside the courtroom on Wednesday, WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch was quick to condemn the kidnapper and suggested the 13-year-sentence was not long enough.
"Early on in my career I spoke to a father of a victim of a serious crime. And he said to me, as a dad, a million years isn't enough and that's driven by emotion - and as a father I understand that," he said.
"And I would expect that the community would never think that 13-and-a-half years is enough."
Terence Kelly snatched Cleo from the Quobba Blowholes campsite, a remote coastal area in WA, as she slept beside her parents and baby sister on the night of October 16th, 2021.
He then held her captive in his home in the rural town of Carnavon for 18 days before she was found by police.
During the course of the sentencing hearing, new details came to light on just what went on during those 18 days of Cleo's captivity.
Commissioner Blanch added that the investigation to track down and rescue Cleo was the "gold standard" for an operation of this type.
"This is an evil crime. He committed a heinous crime. A parent's worse nightmare. As I said before, I'm Police Commissioner and I respect the rule of law, but as a father, that's something I could never forgive."
Image credits: Nine News