Claudean Jonathon Williams: Man jailed for four years for stealing car with six kids inside

A girl who was one of six children in a car when it was stolen by a man fleeing from police tried to escape from the moving vehicle, saying she “did not want to end up like Cleo Smith”. The details of the deprivation of liberty and stealing a motor vehicle incident in South Kalgoorlie on July 3 last year were revealed in Kalgoorlie District Court on Monday, when Claudean Jonathon Williams was jailed for four years. Cleo Smith was the four-year-old girl abducted by Terence Darrell Kelly from a Gascoyne campsite in 2021 before being found at his Carnarvon home. Police were trying to arrest Williams for a breach of bail when he jumped the back fence of a property and ran to the Lionel Street IGA carpark about 10.30am, where he found a car that had been left running. As he began reversing the car, he realised there were six children inside. The children all began screaming and crying for their mum who had entered the shop just moments earlier with another child, leaving the car running as she feared it would not start if she turned it off. CCTV footage played in the courtroom showed a member of the public running towards the car as it was reversing to try to get Williams to stop. The children’s mum can then be seen rushing out of the shop and running in the direction of the car with others. Williams, aged 39 at the time, drove around with the kids — aged one to nine — for between five and 10 minutes, telling them to “be quiet” as they cried and screamed, and promised to return them to the IGA. The eldest child was in the passenger seat and, fearing she would “never see her family again”, she unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door in an attempt to jump out and get help. Williams grabbed the girl by the hand and pulled her back into the car and told her “don’t do that”. Eventually, Williams pulled over about 3.5km from the IGA and rummaged through the car, before leaving with $20 and an auxiliary cord and adaptors. The eldest child sought help at a nearby home, and police found Williams at an address later that day and arrested him. The girl told police she “did not want to end up like Cleo Smith” and had been determined to get her family help during the ordeal. A victim impact statement from the mother was partially read to the court by Judge Michael Bowden. He said the mum could not shake the feeling of danger lurking around every corner, and had been fighting to rebuild trust and a sense of security with her children. He said she felt guilty she had not been able to protect her children when they needed her most, and said some of them experienced nightmares and other emotional and psychological traumas after the ordeal. Defence lawyer Will Reid said Williams decided to stop the car near where someone was mowing their lawn so he knew the kids would be “easily discoverable”. “He did not want to cause them harm,” Mr Reid said. “It hurts him, too, what he has done. “He feels shame when he explains to his family what he has done.” While he admitted the offending was serious, Mr Reid asked Judge Bowden to consider suspending any term of imprisonment. However, State Prosecutor Matthew Thompson called for an immediate term of imprisonment. “He prioritised his own liberty over the liberty of those vulnerable children,” he said. Judge Bowden said Williams had been awake for six days straight abusing meth at the time of the offending. “You were so obsessed with getting away from the police you really gave no consideration to anyone else,” he said. He sentenced Williams to four years imprisonment, backdated to July 3 when he was taken into custody. He was made eligible for parole after serving two years. Williams will be sentenced in the Magistrates Court for unrelated charges of breaching bail, obstructing public officers, and common assault.