The man accused of taking Cleo Smith from her family's tent at a WA campsite has been flown to Perth as police investigate his movements in the days before the four-year-old girl was found inside a Carnarvon house.
Cleo Smith after her rescue. Photo: Western Australian Police
Terrence Darrell Kelly appeared in Carnarvon Magistrate's Court yesterday afternoon, charged with one count of forcibly taking a child under 16 and one other charge.
He was barefoot, wore a black shirt and had his hair out. He is yet to enter a plea to the charges.
Kelly was charged and faced court after he was taken to hospital twice while in custody following his arrest.
A charter flight left Carnarvon about 11.30am local time with Kelly on board, accompanied by four special operations group corrections officers.
The flight landed in Perth about 1:00pm before Kelly was transported in a convoy of vehicles to a maximum security prison where he will await his next court appearance on 6 December.
Family and neighbours have said his image appears on a social media account featuring pictures of children's dolls, as well as information about a fake family.
Expanded CCTV search underway
Police say a key focus of the investigation will now be tracking Kelly's movements in the days before Cleo was found inside a housing commission home in Carnarvon.
Police have so far revealed little of what they know about what happened in the 18 days between the four-year-old vanishing from her parents' tent at the Blowholes campground, and her being found at the home.
The man leading the investigation, Detective Superintendent Rod Wilde, said police were not sure if Cleo had been in the home for all 18 days.
"That's still something that we're going through and trying to establish," he said yesterday.
Police searching through rubbish collected during their search for four-year-old Cleo Smith. Photo: AFP / Western Australian Police Force
Before Cleo was found, police had called for people to supply CCTV footage from a variety of locations across the state, including bakeries and children's clothing stores.
As part of this new stage of the investigation, police are now asking for all CCTV footage people can provide from across the town in WA's Gascoyne region.
"Now that we have knowledge of a suspect, I'm asking businesses and people within Carnarvon to provide to the investigative team any CCTV that they might have between Friday the 15th and Tuesday the 2nd," Detective Senior Sergeant Cameron Blaine said yesterday.
That stretches from the day before Cleo disappeared to the day before she was found.
Footage appears to show arrest
Dash camera footage has also been released, purporting to show the moment Kelly was arrested.
It was only shortly before officers forced their way into the Carnavon home and found Cleo awake and playing with toys.
The grainy footage, which appears to have been captured in the minutes before midnight on Tuesday, shows a car pinned between two other cars on the side of the road.
It was the culmination of the police investigation that came to a head only hours after Kelly was identified as a suspect.
"Trying to gather further information, things became a little clearer, we had identified that this person was a person of interest," Superintendent Wilde said yesterday.
Senior Sergeant Blaine said police quickly formulated a number of plans about what could happen.
"One of them was that the suspect that we were observing could be mobile and would leave the premises," he said.
"In terms of decisions, it wasn't that hard.
"What happened was one of those scenarios, and it was clear in my head what had to occur, so it was just 'OK, let's do that'."
Police have said they cannot say why the man left his home at that time of night.
Cleo Smith being rescued by police in Carnarvon, Western Australia. Photo: AFP / Western Australian Police Force
Dawson praises police for finding Cleo
In a message to the WA Police Force in an internal magazine yesterday, Commissioner Chris Dawson reiterated his pride for the agency's work in finding Cleo, calling it an example of "the very best of humanity".
"I want that pride to fill the hearts of all employees of this great agency," he wrote.
Commissioner Dawson also gave some insight into the time he spent with Cleo and her family, saying it was a privilege to meet her.
"Cleo was sitting on her mum's lap in the backyard chatting away to me, and she did not like my offer of swapping my black police boots for the brand new shiny shoes she was wearing," he said.
"As Cleo and her mum were exchanging kisses and hugs she fell asleep in Ellie's arms.
"None of us will forget that day. It's why we join the Police Force."
- ABC
