WA man sentenced over horror kidnap of two little boys from sleeping beds

A Perth court has heard for the first time the horrifying details of how a WA man took two little boys from their beds while they were sleeping in a rural WA town in 2023, leading a judge to compare the offence to that of abducted four-year-old Cleo Smith.

Jonathan Richard Anthony, 36, was sentenced in Perth District Court on Friday over the incident that saw him don a wig and a mask before entering the home of a neighbour in the early hours of the morning to lift an eight-year-old boy out of his bed.

Anthony took the child back to his home and told him to stay there, or he would kill him, before going back for his 12-year-old brother.

The court heard the older boy resisted as Anthony half carried and half walked him out of the house in the early hours of March 31, eventually escaping and raising the alarm.

The police and a small community came together to search the boy who was located three hours later in Anthony’s house after they heard him screaming, “help me, help me, I’m in here”.

In that time Anthony had plied the child with beer and then taken a photo of his naked buttocks. When the boy begged to go to the bathroom he was told no and that he could “just p— himself”.

The entire interaction was captured on CCTV cameras Anthony had installed in his own house, later watched by sentencing judge Seamus Rafferty.

“This was every parent’s worst nightmare,” he said.

“I can see from that boy’s face just how terrified he is.