The kidnapper of Cleo Smith (4) has been sentenced to 13.5 years in Australia. The girl disappeared from the family tent at night in mid-October 2021. The cause of the kidnapping was announced on Wednesday.
The 37-year-old suffers “a serious and complex personality disorder” and was drugged on the night of the crime, said Perth judge Julie Wagner in charge on Wednesday. The abduction was extremely traumatic for the then four-year-old child.
Cleo disappeared from the family tent at night in mid-October 2021 from a campsite 75 kilometers north of her hometown of Carnarvon. When the parents woke up in the morning, both their daughter and her sleeping bag were gone. The police had set up a special commission of 100 men and the desperate parents had come out with phone calls. However, there was no trace of the girl for 18 days until she was finally freed from a locked house in her hometown.
The girl was not injured and looked well-groomed. Police believe the abduction was unplanned and spontaneous. Questions about the motive and Cleoa’s imprisonment went unanswered for a long time.
Man wanted to have his own child
The owner of the house was arrested in the street nearby. He pleaded guilty in court last year and has not applied for bail. A court-appointed psychiatrist said Wednesday that the man always wanted to have a family of his own, despite his isolated life. He created a “fantasy family” and created profiles on social networks in which he pretended to have children. A large collection of dolls was also found in his home.
He locked Cleo in a bedroom where she was alone most of the time. Sometimes he turned the radio up so loud that she couldn’t be heard. “She begged to be with her parents. 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 judge said.
The sentence range was up to 20 years
The 37-year-old kidnapper has since been sentenced to 13.5 years in prison. He could have been jailed for up to 20 years for kidnapping. His early admission of guilt and difficult childhood were recognized as extenuating circumstances. The convict was exposed to drugs and alcohol in the womb and his childhood was marked by violence. He suffers from a “severe and complex personality disorder.” The man can be paroled in ten years at the earliest.
Source: Krone
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