The nighttime theft of a four-year-old girl while she slept beside her parents on a camping trip in Western Australia’s coastal north made headlines across the nation and around the world.

Now, for the first time, details about the life of the man behind Australia’s most infamous kidnapping have been revealed as a District Court judge sentenced Terence Darrell Kelly to more than 13 years in prison.

Terence Kelly kept Cleo Smith locked in a bedroom in his house.Credit:Anne Barnetson

Kelly was an Indigenous child born in Wickham, north of Karratha in WA’s Pilbara, to disadvantaged parents who drank, fought and abused each other and their children.

Chief Judge Julie Wager stated the now-37-year-old experienced “chronic and complex trauma and profound disadvantage”, as well as early neurodevelopmental impairment during his young life.

Wager spoke quietly and directly to Kelly during the sentencing as she detailed his upbringing.

“Your mother drank heavily and used cannabis,” she said.

“Your father was abusive and violent.”

At two years old, Kelly was placed into the care of his aunt Penny Walker, who he viewed as his grandmother, after child protection services found alcohol in his baby bottles.

“The lack of care you received as an infant was damaging,” Wager said.

Kelly had a hearing impairment which he was supposed to wear aids for, but refused to because it led to him being bullied.

Wager said the hearing and associated speech issues, “likely separated you further from people”.

As a young boy, Kelly was also diagnosed with ADHD, which he was prescribed medication for.

Around seven years old, his behaviour changed suddenly, Wager said, with Kelly becoming behaviourally challenged and difficult to manage.

“In 1997 when you were 12, your behaviour was noted to have changed further after a visit to your parents,” she said.

“You became suicidal and were hospitalised. Sharp objects found under your bed.”

On discharge, doctors diagnosed him with oppositional defiance disorder, ADHD and hearing loss.

A few years later, at almost 14 years old, Kelly spent two weeks in his father’s care.

“Child protection notes [Kelly’s father] was abusive and violent during that visit,” Wager said.

It was also around that time Kelly saw his mother for the last time and later that year his “difficult and disruptive behaviour” saw him expelled from school. That same year a good friend, aged 12, died by suicide.

Walker could no longer handle him, and Kelly was sent away and enrolled in counselling sessions.

By then he was becoming increasingly isolated and alone.

“Your conduct, including your ADHD, bed-wetting and bulky stature had contributed to your alienation from school,” Wager said.

By 2014, Kelly was locked up for aggravated burglary and other burglary offences, and had also received a fine for being in possession of methamphetamine.

By then he was 28 years old and, after his release in 2017, he went back to live with Walker.

Kelly had no further interactions with police until he sat in an interview late one night in November 2021 and confessed to the abduction of Cleo Smith.

Doctors have extensively evaluated Kelly since in a bid to try and understand why he had committed one of Australia’s most notorious kidnappings.

Their assessment? Complex developmental and personality dysfunction.

“Neuropsychology could not confirm your mother’s use of alcohol but it is entirely likely your deficits are due to alcohol spectrum disorder,” the court was told on Wednesday.

“There is a family history of alcohol in utero and ADHD in childhood.”

Doctors described Kelly as detached, anti-social, depressive and narcissistic.

“I accept that you were exposed to chronic, severe and complex trauma in childhood,” Wager said.

She also agreed that it was these complex issues that led Kelly into a fantasy world where he was a father and a husband, collected dolls, and wanted to dress Cleo up and play with her.

“You developed this as a self protective means,” Wager said.

“As a way to avoid the real world which was full of anxiety and depression.”

The death of Walker, who had raised Kelly since he was a toddler, and his subsequent drug-taking “tipped him over the edge” and led to his impulsive decision to take little Cleo from her tent that fateful night.

Wager said it was “very unlikely” he would have stolen her if he did not have such significant mental impairments, with the combination of drug use.

Ultimately, Wager acknowledged the sad life that Kelly had led and took his past into consideration when sentencing him.

“No child in WA should have suffered the neuro-deficiencies that you suffered as a child and a young person,” she said.

“Sadly many people have suffered from the adverse impact of colonisation.

“I accept that you are one of them.”

Crisis support is available from Lifeline on 13 11 14.

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