Samantha Azzopardi in court on child stealing charges
Samantha Azzopardi sat with her face in her hands this morning as a court heard details of what she allegedly asked a 12-year-old girl to do.
A nanny with dozens of aliases allegedly stole the passport from the mother of the children who were in her care and used it to con another family.
Samantha Azzopardi, 31, faced Melbourne Magistrates’ Court via video link this morning where she faces up to 54 charges, including four counts of child stealing.
She was arrested in November last year at a Myer store in Bendigo where she allegedly took a 10-month-old girl and a four-year-old girl without their parents’ knowledge.
The girls were returned unharmed but Ms Azzopardi was charged with child stealing and use of a fake name.
Ms Azzopardi is also accused of two further counts of child stealing from separate families in different parts of the state.
News.com.au has spoken to a number of Ms Azzopardi’s alleged victims, who will give evidence in court of being hoodwinked by the use of fake names, multiple identities and a string of lies.
Ms Azzopardi wore a matching blue prison outfit and sat with her head in her hands for much of the 30-minute hearing this morning. She did not respond when a judge told her the matter had been adjourned until July – instead she stood and walked out of the room.
The court heard Ms Azzopardi allegedly used different names with as many as three separate Melbourne families.
She is accused of calling herself Harper Hernandez and stealing the passport and driver’s license of a woman who hired her to look after her young children.
She allegedly helped the woman apply for a new passport but kept the original. Months after parting ways with that family, she is accused of using the woman’s driver’s license to book into a motel as part of a second con.
On the second occasion, Ms Azzopardi is accused of portraying a woman named “Marley” and convincing a 12-year-old girl to undertake a series of bizarre tasks.
The court today heard Ms Azzopardi convinced the young girl to enter The Royal Children’s Hospital, a legal aid service and Centrelink and “pretend to be somebody else”.
She allegedly told the girl she was a casting agent from United Talent Agency and convinced her she was auditioning for a voiceover role for an upcoming Disney Pixar movie, the court heard.
News.com.au spoke with the young girl’s stepmother, who said the family was still reeling from allegations that included an unsupervised trip to Sydney.
“(The alleged victim) and Marley had several meetings in the city where (it’s alleged) she was made to do strange things pretending to be someone else,” she said.
“This woman also flew my daughter to Sydney for an apparent audition that resulted in her having to go into Centrelink and again pretend she was somebody else.
“In Centrelink, (the alleged victim) had to write down on a piece of paper that she saw a ghost,” the woman said of the allegations aired in court.
“At Legal Aid she had to give them a fake ID and birth certificate. It just doesn’t make sense.
“Meanwhile, while all this was happening, this woman was buying her expensive clothing and spoiling her.
“That’s when I knew something wasn’t right and felt straight away that it was grooming.”
The judge told the court this morning: “There’s ample evidence that the person known as Marley was indeed Samantha Azzopardi.
“They didn’t know who this person was. She was not who she professed to be. The parents believed who she said she was,” she said.
The court heard the 12-year-old girl, who cannot be named, may appear as a prosecution witness in the case against Ms Azzopardi.
The matter was adjourned until July 13.