Jonathon Richard Anthony: Man told 8-year-old to ‘stay here or I’ll kill you’ while snatching boy from his bed

A man convicted of kidnapping an eight-year-old boy from his Wheatbelt home, before returning to try to snatch his older brother, has been locked up for eight years, with the judge comparing the 2023 offence with the abduction of four-year-old Cleo Smith. Jonathon Richard Anthony, 36, was sentenced in the Perth District Court on Friday. Clad in a crude disguise comprising a wig and balaclava, Anthony crept into a Moora neighbour’s home in the early hours of March 31, 2023, and snatched the younger boy from his bed. He hid him in his own home, telling the terrified child: “Stay here or I’ll kill you.” Over three unbearable hours the 36-year-old made the boy wear his clothes, forced beer down his throat, nuzzled his face into his neck and wouldn’t let him go to the toilet. The screaming child was located by family and police. Anthony also tried to kidnap the boy’s brother but the brave 12-year-old fought the masked intruder off. Anthony’s defence was that he had not been taking his schizophrenia medication and in the hours before the abduction had been sniffing butane. He was also delusional, believing he needed to “save” the children. In the Perth District Court on Friday Judge Seamus Rafferty said the ordeal was “every parent’s worst nightmare,” and referenced Terence Kelly, who took Cleo Smith from her family’s tent in Carnarvon in 2021. Security footage captured Anthony’s terrifying attack. He is shown returning to the front of the property after taking the younger boy, then disappearing inside the house. He re-emerges, dragging the boy’s 12-year-old brother, who was struggling and eventually managed to escape and run back inside where he raised the alarm. A family member said at the time that the cild was “scared and shaking.” “He told me ... his younger brother is missing.” The younger boy was found after yelling out: “I’m over here.” Anthony pleaded guilty to multiple charges related to the incident and will be eligible for parole in 2029.