Indigenous Man Wrongly Identified As Cleo Smith’s Abductor Is Suing Channel Seven For Defamation

A man has launched a defamation case against the Seven Network after the organisation wrongly identified him as the accused abductor of Cleo Smith.

Nyamal man Terrance Flowers from Karratha, Western Australia, had his photo plastered online by 7NEWS in early November as the suspect who had been taken in by police for allegedly kidnapping the four-year-old girl, who has since been returned to her family.

The 27-year-old, who uses his mother’s surname ‘Kelly’ on Facebook, was mistaken for 36-year-old Terence Darrell Kelly — whose name is spelt differently, and who is also Indigenous.

Flowers’ lawyers said on Tuesday that 7NEWS had pulled “four full-screen colour photographs” his social media accounts “without his consent”, in the first public display of someone related to the case. They said he had “been gravely injured in his character and reputation, and has suffered substantial hurt, distress and embarrassment, and has and will continue to suffer loss and damage” for being associated with such a high-profile case.

Seven had published his images across their website, TV broadcast, Twitter and Facebook with the headline “PICTURED: the man accused of abducting Cleo Smith” on November 3. They issued an apology on the same day acknowledging the incorrect label, and apologised and removed the posts. Smith had been found on the same day in the coastal town of Carnarvon, WA, after having been missing for 18 days.

Flowers said at the time that he had suffered a severe panic attack and had to be hospitalised when finding out about the mix-up, and after becoming the target of nationwide hate and vitriol.

He filed the case in the WA Supreme Court and will be represented by defamation hotshot Sue Chrysanthou, who represented Christian Porter and Geoffrey Rush in their suits against media outlets. Seven Network has 28 days to make an offer of amends.