Cleo Smith case: More evidence taken from alleged abductor Terence Kelly’s home

Police and forensic experts have returned to where Cleo Smith was found, as her alleged abductor is in a prison which houses some of Australia’s most dangerous crims.

Police and a team of forensic experts have returned to Cleo Smith’s alleged abductor’s house to comb through more evidence, which could take weeks to complete.

Forensic experts returned to Terence Darrell Kelly’s house on Saturday with about half-a-dozen officers, who were observed in full body suits and masks.

More brown paper bags were taken away from the two-bedroom property in Carnarvon, which is 1.5km from the local police station and 3km from Cleo’s family home.

Forensics are pictured at the home where Terence Kelly lived on Saturday. Picture: Kelsey Reid/The West Australian

Kelly lived alone in government housing when he allegedly abducted Cleo and held her captive in his house for 18 days before police raided the property and found her playing with toys in a locked room.

More bags of evidence inside the forensic tent in the front yard of Kelly’s place. Picture: Kelsey Reid/The West Australian

It comes as Kelly has moved into a maximum-security prison on remand in Perth.

Kelly, 36, was flown from the small community to Perth on Friday to Casuarina prison.

The prison is Western Australia’s main maximum-security jail and only takes in male prisoners.

Forensics are pictured at the home where Terence Kelly lived on Saturday morning. Picture: Kelsey Reid/The West Australian

Terence Darrell Kelly boards a plane after being taken into custody by members of the Special Operations Group at Carnarvon airport. Picture: Getty

It is also home to some of the state’s most dangerous criminals.

Some of them include serial Claremont killer Bradley Robert Edwards, child rapist and killer Dante Arthurs, and serial bank robber and prison escapee Brenden Abbott.

Edwards will most likely die in jail as he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon in the mid 1990s.

Bradley Robert Edwards.

Brenden Abbott.

Arthurs was convicted of the murder of eight-year-old Sofia Rodriguez-Urrutia Shu, who was strangled and sexually abused before her body was left in a disabled bathroom stall in Canningvale, WA, in 2006.

Abbott was a notorious bank robber who was nicknamed the ‘Postcard Bandit’ following his escape from Fremantle prison in 1989.

During his six years on the run, he sent postcards from his locations. He was caught again and imprisoned in Queensland in 1995 before he escaped again two years later.

Casuarina Prison is the main maximum-security prison for Western Australia.

In 2016, he was caught and extradited to Perth. He was later jailed again in Casuarina prison after he pleaded guilty to his Fremantle prison escape.

The prison is surrounded by a range of state-of-the-art security devices and has a special unit for intensive, high-security supervision of offenders.

Cleo Smith with mother Ellie. Picture: Colin Murty

Kelly was shackled and barefoot as special operations group officers escorted him to the plane after he appeared in court for the first time charged over the alleged abduction.

He is facing charges including forcibly taking a child aged under 16.

Forensics taking evidence from Kelly’s home on Saturday morning. Picture: Kelsey Reid/The West Australian

Cleo’s mother Ellie Smith and stepdad Jake Gliddon released their first statement Friday thanking the community for their help in finding their four-year-old girl.

“We are humbled by the love and support that we have received from not only our local community but the whole of Western Australia and across the country,” they said.

“We are so thankful that our little girl is back within our arms and our family is whole again.”

They also asked for privacy as they tried to “get on” with their lives.

Cleo was allegedly taken from the family tent while camping at Quobba Blowholes on October 16 and was rescued from a house in nearby Carnarvon just before 1am on Wednesday when detectives barged into the property.

Mr Kelly was brought into custody on Tuesday and questioned for hours before police released a statement late on Thursday, saying he had been charged.

He is due to face court again in December.

Originally published as Cleo Smith case: More evidence taken from alleged abductor Terence Kelly’s home