Home And Away catfish case ‘flawed’, court told
A Melbourne woman who allegedly stalked someone while posing as a Home and Away star has labelled the case against her “flawed”.
A woman accused of posing as a Home and Away actor to dupe women into relationships has labelled the investigation against her as “flawed, colluded and skewed”.
Lydia Abdelmalek is appealing after she was sentenced to two years and eight months behind bars for six counts of stalking in 2019.
She was convicted of using the identity of Aussie soap star Lincoln Lewis to hoodwink women into believing they were involved in relationships, but the 31-year-old immediately appealed it.
Her appeal continues in the County Court of Victoria where she appeared virtually dressed in a black Puma jumper.
Lawyer Tim Sullivan quizzed the lead detective in the case about the phone numbers police allege were used to stalk the women involved.
“I’m suggesting the investigation is flawed, colluded and skewed,” Mr Sullivan told the court on Wednesday.
He also said some of the information – including contacts – on one of Ms Abdelmalek’s phones was not put there by his client.
“The alleged incriminating data was not put on the iPhone 6 by Lydia Abdelmalek,” Mr Sullivan said.
But Detective Senior Constable Kellie Moore said she couldn’t comment on how the information came to be on the phone.
“It was there when I got the phone,” she said.
The lawyer put it to the officer that the WhatsApp messages ended up on the phone after his client was arrested and in custody when there was a “sync” with the phone from a laptop.
Judge Claire Quin asked Constable Moore if she put the messages on the phone.
“No, I did not do that,” the detective said and added no one else did it.
The court was also told a SIM card with a number that was at one point registered under the name of Lincoln Lewis was found at Ms Abdelmalek’s home during a police raid in April 2021.
But this was after the initial court case in 2019, the court was told.
During the earlier hearings, Lewis and friends of the alleged victims gave evidence about the alleged stalking and hours of recorded police interviews with Ms Abdelmalek were aired.
The Melbourne woman was probed about Instagram accounts, phone numbers and particular emails and started to laugh.
“I guess I don’t know why I would create these emails,” she said when asked about why she laughed.
She was also asked about phones seized from her home and who they belonged to during the appeal.