A Perth shopkeeper will spend more months behind bars as he awaits his fate following the shocking kidnapping of a nine-year-old girl on her way to school.
Ryan Ashley Darken previously pleaded guilty to luring the girl into his vehicle in Warnbro, suburban Perth, at around 8.25am on July 21, 2023.
A short time later, he left her outside an IGA supermarket in Port Kennedy with her hands tied with zip ties.
A parent who witnessed the incident alerted the girl’s school and the news spread after the girl’s mother took to social media to ask for help.
The girl was later found in danger at a shopping center several miles away.
Police officers swarmed the area and Darken was arrested and charged.
Darken was charged with detaining another person with intent to cause harm, deprivation of liberty, assault and threats.
Darken left the girl outside an IGA supermarket in Port Kennedy with her hands bound by zip ties a short time later.
Darken was charged with detaining another person with intent to cause harm, deprivation of liberty, assault and threats.
He pleaded guilty to those charges at Rockingham Magistrates Court on November 3, 2023.
He was not required to appear in Perth District Court on Friday, but his lawyer Christian Porter told Recorder Jacquie Kubacz that Darken needed multiple appointments with a forensic psychiatrist to prepare a report for your sentencing hearing.
The court heard the first appointment available was not until July.
The West reported in March that Darken had suffered a head injury in a car accident as a child and was considered to be quite functionally disabled.
The case is due back in District Court for a mention hearing on August 30 before he is sentenced in October.
