The sentence was handed down on Wednesday by Perth District Court Chief Judge Julie Wager, with Cleo’s parents, Ellie Smith and Jake Gliddon, in court to hear the outcome.
Her disappearance sparked one of the biggest missing persons investigations in Australian history, with detectives rescuing Cleo from Kelly’s Carnarvon house nearly three weeks later.
Wager said, during Cleo’s time in captivity, she spent most of her time alone, locked in a bedroom after Kelly altered the door handle so that the room locked from the outside.
“She pleaded to go to her parents, she asked mainly for her mother,” she said.
“You put on the radio loudly in the bathroom to cover up any noise that Cleo made.
“The young victim heard her name on the radio and she said they were saying her name.”
After his arrest, Kelly told police he “roughed Cleo up a bit a few times” and became angry when Cleo got “bossy” asking for chocolate, but claimed he wanted to make sure the child was “comfortable”.
“I, you know, wanted to hold on to her, but I knew it was wrong,” he said.
Court-appointed psychiatrists found Kelly had a severe personality disorder and longed for his own family, including a little girl he could “dress up, play with and be with”.
He had created a fantasy family prior to abducting Cleo, and made Facebook profiles for each person.
Kelly was high on methamphetamine when he decided to travel to the Quobba Blowholes campsite on the night Cleo was taken to look for things to steal.
When he peered into Cleo’s family tent, he saw her sleeping, and made an impulsive decision to take her, bundling her and her sleeping bag into the front seat of his car and travelling back to town via dirt track roads.