Cameron Blaine: Cop who helped find Cleo Smith quits the force ahead of bombshell corruption report

The WA detective who became an international hero when he found kidnap victim Cleo Smith has quit the force ahead of a corruption report about him. Det-Sen. Sgt Cameron Blaine shot to fame when footage of him asking the four-year-old her name and her replying, “My name is Cleo”, went viral. The veteran cop was one of the most recognised people in Australia in the wake of the successful rescue in Carnarvon in November 2021. Allegations of impropriety emerged in the wake of the police triumph, and Blaine was soon a target of a corruption investigation. It emerged last September that he had been stood down on full pay as the inquiry unfolded. “As a result of a cooperative investigation between the Corruption and Crime Commission and WA Police Force, a senior detective has today been stood down as investigations into alleged misconduct are ongoing,” the CCC and WAPOL said in a joint statement at the time. The CCC was stonewalled when Blaine claimed he could not remember the passcode to his iPhone. The detective gave several options, but investigators were loathe to try them lest all were incorrect and the phone was locked permanently. The CCC looked to engage the services of one of the elite private companies around the world that specialised in hacking phones for intelligence agencies and police forces. The agency did gain access to the police-issued device, and it is understood the corruption report will be tabled in the State Parliament on Thursday. Blaine recently handed in his notice, which means he will duck the prospect of being forced out of WA Police under so-called Section 8 proceedings — a process in which Commissioner Col Blanch would have to explain why he had lost confidence in the officer. The corruption report will stain one of WA Police’s greatest-ever achievements. Cleo’s rescue dominated world headlines for days, and Blaine became the poster boy for the abilities of Australian detectives. He was one of the officers directly involved in storming the Carnarvon home of Terence Kelly, where Cleo was found locked inside a room 18 days after she was snatched from a tent at the Blowholes campsite in October. After she was scooped up into the arms of officers, and Blaine asked her for her name, she famously replied: “My name is Cleo”. The rescue came after a worldwide appeal, the formation of a special task force and a $1 million reward. Kelly pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and is now behind bars. Blaine has also headed some of WA’s most notorious homicide cases, including the killing of Aaron Pajich-Sweetman by wannabe serial killer Jemma Lilley and her accomplice Trudi Lenon in 2016. Blaine was involved in the case against Aaron Raymond Craig, who murdered Bradley Hoddy in 2006. More recently, the officer was involved in the arrest of Tobias Moran in Perth over the murder of his backpacker girlfriend, Simone Strobel, in NSW in 2005.