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'Australia's Madeleine McCann': Expert reveals why 13-year sentence for Cleo Smith's abductor is 'fair'

Criminologist Dr Xanthe Mallett insisted that Terence Kelly's sentence was 'fair' considering the circumstances

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PERTH, AUSTRALIA: A reputed criminologist has explained why Terence Kelly was given a "fair sentence" for abducting four-year-old Cleo Smith -- known in the local media as Australia's Madeleine McCann -- and holding her captive for 18 days. This comes after police felt the 13-year, six-month sentence handed down to the 37-year-old perp in Perth's District Court on Wednesday, April 5, was too lenient.

On October 16, 2021, Smith was kidnapped while she was sleeping with her family at the Blowholes campsite, located 597 miles north of Perth. She was held at Kelly's nearby Carnarvon home for weeks before police rescued her. Dr Xanthe Mallett, a criminologist at the University of Newcastle, admitted that Kelly's sentence might not appear adequate but insisted it was "fair" considering the circumstances.

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'There were serious mitigating circumstances'

During his interrogation, Kelly admitted that he had "roughed [Cleo] up a few times" and that he smacked her when she was being "bossy" towards him. "The community may feel that this is quite a low sentence, the maximum was 20 years, but there were serious mitigating circumstances," Mallett said during an appearance on Sunrise Thursday, April 6. "The offender has a very complex behavioral and traumatic past and that was certainly taken into account by the judge at sentencing," she added.

Kelly, who confessed to being on a meth-fueled bender during the crime, reportedly has a history of childhood trauma -- something that the judge would have considered in their decision-making. "He (Kelly) has also got cognitive dysfunction as well as very serious personality disorders, so it was a complex picture that the judge had to weigh up," Mallett explained, adding, "The methamphetamine was used to manage some of his trauma just played into it and made everything so much worse for him in the time leading up to the abduction."

'Must have been very traumatic for her'

During the time Smith was held captive, Kelly apparently turned up the radio volume to drown out her cries for help while she heard her name being broadcast during the police search. "This must have been very traumatic for her," Mallett noted, adding, "Eighteen days is a really long time in a four-year-old's life and to hear her name on the radio and not understand why he wouldn't return her to her mother must have been incredibly traumatic for her. We are very lucky that she was returned physically unharmed but there is a significant amount of trauma that she would have suffered."

Regardless, Mallett lauded WA police for their search efforts and their messages of support to the four-year-old's family throughout the ordeal. "I think it certainly speaks to the amount of time and effort and love that they put into this case to find this child," she said, adding, "It was an amazing result, one that none of us expected. I'm pleased that the formal part is over for the family because they really need time to consolidate and move on from this so that it doesn't haunt them for the rest of their lives. Cleo is a very young girl who has got her whole future ahead of her."

WA Commissioner Col Blanch offered a similar message to Cleo on Wednesday. "We owe you your privacy, we owe you to grow up and have your dreams come true. So from all of us, it's time we give you the space to do so," he said, adding that finding the youngster was "the greatest story in Western Australian policing history."

'Something I could never forgive'

Blanch described Kelly's crime as "evil, heinous," and "a parent's worst nightmare." He said, "As I said before, I'm the Police Commissioner and I respect the rule of law, but as a father, that's something I could never forgive."

The commissioner also questioned the sentence given to the suspect. "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. But Judge (Julie) Wager had to weigh up many things, and there were many mitigating circumstances and I respect the court's decision," Blanch added.