A 38-year-old Perth man has admitted abducting a nine-year-old girl as she walked to school, sparking a frantic search for her that ended when she appeared hours later "crying and distressed" at a nearby shopping centre.
The girl was reported missing by her mother as she walked to school in the suburb of Warnbro on the morning of July 21, and was later found outside the shopping centre a few kilometres away.
Ryan Ashley Darken on Friday pleaded guilty to detaining her — as well as to other charges including deprivation of liberty and making a threat to unlawfully do an act.
Loading...He appeared in the Rockingham Magistrates Court, where convictions were recorded.
He is next listed to appear on the four charges in the District Court on January 12.
Darken has not entered pleas to charges of possessing a prohibited drug and possessing drug paraphernalia.
Those matters will be heard in the Rockingham Magistrates Court in February.