Western Australia Police Minister Paul Papalia has shot down rumours Cleo Smith was snatched as part of a paedophile ring.
The four-year-old has spent her first night at home with her parents after being found “alive and well” inside a Carnarvon home in the early hours of Wednesday.
Watch the WA Police Minister speak to Kochie in the video above
Speaking to Sunrise on Thursday, Papalia said that while he has to be “careful talking about the detail” due to the ongoing investigation, only one person is believed to be involved in the alleged crime.
“To our knowledge this is one individual, it’s one person who has done this horrible thing,” he said.
“There is no reason to expect that anybody else has been involved. No one else should be feeling any shame and there should not be any blame anywhere else.”
A 36-year-old man was taken into custody and questioned over the suspected abduction but is yet to be charged.
Police say he has no connection to Cleo’s family and was not at the house when the girl was found.
He is currently in hospital after reportedly sustaining self-inflicted head injuries in his holding cell.
“We still have the 36-year-old male in our custody, he’s still assisting with inquires, he’s gone off to hospital again this morning,” WA Police Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch told Sunrise.
He said officers would interview the suspect once he has recovered.
“The important thing for police if we’re going to interview someone for offences as serious as this, we would need them in a condition where they’ve had rest, they’re in a good mental state.”
“We’ve got to make sure we give them the best opportunity to answer our questions, and that’s to ensure the court process is validated if we get to that point.”
Watch Col Blanch speak to Sunrise in the video player below
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Blanch said Cleo would also be spoken to by “specialist child interviewers” so police can “piece together” exactly what occurred in the 18 days after she disappeared.
“Her physical well-being seemed OK, but there is a lot of work to be done with a child of such young age to understand what they’ve been through.
“It’s not like you’d do an normal adult interview when you’re basically straight into the ‘what happened’ - it’s really about getting to know them, making them feel comfortable and they can talk when they’re ready to talk.
“We don’t want to cause anymore distress to Cleo, that’s the last thing police would want to do.”
Blanch said police tracked Cleo down thanks to the “incredible work” of detectives, who had been working tirelessly to locate the little girl after she disappeared last month.
“For 18 days we put together the information, it was literally a needle in a data haystack, and we got to a point where we could sort of see the picture that we believed fit the circumstance.”
“And it did lead to that house and the person in that house,” he explained.
“We put the phone data, number plate recognition data, CCTV, witness accounts, forensics and when you lay them on top of each other you solve crimes.
“And that’s exactly what we’ve done here.”
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMihwFodHRwczovLzduZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9zdW5yaXNlL29uLXRoZS1zaG93L3dhLXBvbGljZS1taW5pc3Rlci1zYXlzLW9uZS1wZXJzb24tcmVzcG9uc2libGUtZm9yLXN1c3BlY3RlZC1hYmR1Y3Rpb24tb2YtY2xlby1zbWl0aC1jLTQ0MjYxOTfSAQA?oc=5
2021-11-03 22:07:30Z
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