Woman horrified over use of her pictures

Sydney woman whose photos were used by Terence Kelly to ­create fake Facebook accounts has spoken of her alarm.

A Sydney woman whose photos were used by Terence Kelly to ­create fake Facebook accounts has spoken of her alarm at having her images used by the alleged child abductor.

The woman, who has asked not to be identified, discovered her images and those of her daughter had been used by Mr Kelly – the Carnarvon man ­accused of kidnapping Cleo Smith – after being alerted by an anonymous Reddit user.

In the hours since Mr Kelly’s ­arrest, internet sleuths have taken to unpacking his history, ­re­vealing a web of fake accounts, all used by Mr Kelly to create an elaborate fake family.

In the years leading up to the alleged abduction, Mr Kelly is ­believed to have created multiple Facebook accounts, including those of a young girl, a teenage girl, and a mother, “liking” topics such as “baby bikinis”.

The accounts interacted with one another, creating the illusion the accounts were legitimate.

Two such accounts featured the images of the Sydney woman, her daughter and her extended family. The images were taken from the woman’s own private ­social media accounts. It is alleged that Mr Kelly used these accounts to interact with his main profiles, called Bratz DeLuca and Terence TezKelz.

The woman says her trust has been violated since the revelations. She does not know why her and her daughter’s images were used by Mr Kelly, a man she has never interacted with, nor has any connection to.

“Of the millions and millions of people, what I want to ask is, why me? What have I done or what has my daughter done. Who is following us for this to happen?

“Social media is such a large part of our lives, but I think this has made us realise that none of us knows how to use it properly. My daughter hasn’t done anything wrong, and I haven’t done anything wrong, but now it looks like we are friends with this dude.”

In a second account, confirmed by police to belong to Mr Kelly, the user Bratz DeLuca spoke about warning his “children”, aged 11, 16, 17, 19 and 21, about the dangers of “predators” on ­social media. In the account profile, the user described himself as an “alpha male and dad” – stating that he is “Australian born of an Italian mother”.

The profile featured multiple images of Mr Kelly, posing with various Bratz dolls.

In one post, Mr Kelly described his love of the children’s toys, stating: “I love taking my dolls for a drive around, and doing their hair and taking selfies in public.”

Mr Kelly is not believed to have any biological children.

In a Facebook Story, shared on October 18, 2021 – two days after Cleo Smith went missing — user Bratz DeLuca shared an image of children playing on the beach, with a sticker stating “baby girls are the best” and “feeling blessed”.

Mr Kelly appears to have created a number of other accounts for various “family” members, all “liking” and commenting on his two main accounts. These profiles contained images of men, women and children who are yet to be identified, but are understood to have no connection to Mr Kelly.

The Reddit user said she made the connection after realising Mr Kelly had used elements of real women’s surnames in the names of his fake accounts.