"Details about the troubled early years of the man accused of kidnapping Cleo Smith have emerged in an audiotape that reveals he was removed from his mother’s care at a young age.
Penny Walker, a respected member of the Indigenous community, said she took Terence Darrell Kelly under her wing when he was just two years old
During a 2019 oral history interview with Denmark-based photographer Nic Duncan, Ms Walker spoke about how a “little boy with jet black curly hair” ended up in her care in 1987.
Born in 1943, Ms Walker was 44 years old when she took him in and called him Terry.
In the interview, she said she had been a heavy drinker in her youth and that she was a domestic violence victim. She said her own six biological children had been taken from her.
Later in her life, she said she was blessed when she was given the chance to raise Kelly - whose mother was a drug addict and did not want him. When she took him in, she said considered young Mr Kelly a gift from God.
“His mum didn’t want him and she threw him away,” she said. “I looked down at him and this little boy – God was giving me something back into my life … my children.
“So I had this little boy. Beautiful boy, Terry, two-year-old jet black curly hair.”
She said that she raised him alongside her two grandsons after the death of her daughter from multiple sclerosis.
Ms Walker was part of the Stolen Generation and also spoke about her traumatic childhood – which included sexual abuse and beatings – at the Moore River Native Settlement and New Norcia Mission.
She died in 2020, leaving Mr Kelly living alone in their Carnarvon house — where locals said he became increasingly withdrawn.
Other locals who knew Kelly said they didn’t “notice any unusual behaviour” in his younger years.
A woman who went to school with the alleged kidnapper said police claims about the abduction of Cleo Smith “shocked, infuriated and saddened” her
Penny Walker, a respected member of the Indigenous community, said she took Terence Darrell Kelly under her wing when he was just two years old
During a 2019 oral history interview with Denmark-based photographer Nic Duncan, Ms Walker spoke about how a “little boy with jet black curly hair” ended up in her care in 1987.
Born in 1943, Ms Walker was 44 years old when she took him in and called him Terry.
In the interview, she said she had been a heavy drinker in her youth and that she was a domestic violence victim. She said her own six biological children had been taken from her.
Later in her life, she said she was blessed when she was given the chance to raise Kelly - whose mother was a drug addict and did not want him. When she took him in, she said considered young Mr Kelly a gift from God.
“His mum didn’t want him and she threw him away,” she said. “I looked down at him and this little boy – God was giving me something back into my life … my children.
“So I had this little boy. Beautiful boy, Terry, two-year-old jet black curly hair.”
She said that she raised him alongside her two grandsons after the death of her daughter from multiple sclerosis.
Ms Walker was part of the Stolen Generation and also spoke about her traumatic childhood – which included sexual abuse and beatings – at the Moore River Native Settlement and New Norcia Mission.
She died in 2020, leaving Mr Kelly living alone in their Carnarvon house — where locals said he became increasingly withdrawn.
Other locals who knew Kelly said they didn’t “notice any unusual behaviour” in his younger years.
A woman who went to school with the alleged kidnapper said police claims about the abduction of Cleo Smith “shocked, infuriated and saddened” her
Comment