John William Bennett seeks release on parole from his life sentence for killing Kelly Anne Jones

A man who kidnapped and murdered a three-year-old girl 34 years ago has applied for parole in Queensland and wants the state to waive the “no body, no parole” clause.

John William Bennett was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1990 for the 1989 murder of Kelly Anne Jones, just days before her fourth birthday.

The toddler, whose body has never been found, was visiting her aunt in Toowoomba for the flower carnival when Bennett took her away from home.

Kelly was last seen at 8:30 a.m. on September 24, 1989, in the backseat of Bennett’s car near a Hampton store.

Her mother, Caroline Jones of Ipswich, said, “All I have now are memories of her, a few photographs and a plaque in Worrall Cemetery Park.”

“No body was ever found to bring her peace,” Ms Jones told the Townsville Bulletin.

Bennett later confessed to murdering the toddler’s remains and disposing of them in a rubbish dump.

‘I killed her. I killed her. She wouldn’t give up. She annoyed me so I killed her,” he said in his confession to police, heard at his trial.

Hundreds of volunteers explored a rubbish dump north of Toowoomba, but her body was never found.

In the months before the murder, Bennett was friends with Kelly’s aunt Suzanna Jones and sometimes visited her at her home in Hampton, north of Toowoomba.

Bennett was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor, with Judge Paul de Jersey saying the murder was senseless and brutal.

“After you killed her, you inflicted the ultimate indignity on her to dump her dead body in a bag in a dump,” he said.

“You denied her the right for no reason which ironically you still enjoy.

“You have caused untold misery to her parents, and I pity you for your callous disregard for human life.”

Mrs Jones met Bennett before he was sentenced.

“He just told me she was crying, so he put his hand over her mouth, but I don’t believe him,” she said.

“If she had lived, she would have turned 38 this year.”

After 32 years behind bars, Bennett has been released on parole.

The body of Kelly Anne Jones (pictured) has never been found. Her killer is asking for parole

He wants the Queensland Parole Board, which is considering the application Friday, to ignore its “no body, no parole” policy.

Queensland introduced the law in August 2017 requiring the state Parole Board not to grant parole to an individual unless satisfied that the prisoner has satisfactorily cooperated in identifying the location of the body of the victim.

Hundreds of people have signed petition on change.org protest against his request for release.

“John Bennett has applied for parole, help us sign this to keep him in jail where he can rot,” the petition reads.

The application will be heard in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday.