What drove Samantha Azzopardi to lie about abduction, sexual abuse, trafficking?

BEFORE Belle Gibson, this Aussie had the world gripped by her elaborate, heartbreaking lies. Friends say she started lying early in life and never stopped.

Samantha Azzopardi has made a name — or multiple names — for herself by lying.

AURORA Hepburn’s story was so heartbreaking it was impossible to ignore. It was so elaborate it was impossible to question. But it was a lie she’d told before under a different name, one you might recognise: Sammy Azzopardi.

Perhaps Dakota Johnson rings a bell. Or Lindsay Coughlin. Or Emily Peet.

The lie was told in parts. She was in a Canadian police station the last time she told it in 2014. At least, we think it’s the last time she told it.

Hepburn, whose real name is Samantha Azzopardi, is 27.

She’s originally from Campbelltown in Sydney’s southwest but she hasn’t been heard from since she told Calgary officers she’d been the victim of abduction, torture, sexual assault and sex trafficking.

She was booted from the country and returned to Sydney to be cared for by her parents Bruce and Joanne but if past form is anything to go by she could be anywhere, under any name, telling any number of elaborate stories.

Azzopardi’s long list of lies is featured in a book titled The Confidence Game, written by New York Times author Maria Konnikova and set for release on January 12.

It shines new light on her bizarre behaviour — from lies about being a sex trafficking victim and an orphan to lies about being an Olympian — and helps us understand why anybody would want to deceive in such a troubling manner.

Azzopardi’s friends have also opened up about the girl they knew as a teen and what signs she showed, if any, that indicated her life would take a turn fit for a Hollywood blockbuster or a best-selling spy novel.

School friend Juanita Levi told news.com.au Azzopardi has been lying from the start. Small things, but lies nonetheless. One time she phoned police about finding a dead cat with all of its bones broken, Ms Levi said.

There was no dead cat. Another time she lied about where she lived.

“At first she seemed like a normal kid. Later she seemed troubled,” Ms Levi said.

The small lies became bigger lies. She went from lying to friends to lying to confused police in cities as far apart as Perth, Brisbane, Dublin and Calgary.

Her web of lies would come undone but not before she convinced those willing to listen that every word was the truth.

Samantha Azzopardi told police in Dublin and Calgary she was abused. Picture: Calgary Police Service

CON ARTIST 25 GOING ON 14

Azzopardi’s first big lies were told in Brisbane in 2010. She went by the name of Dakota Johnson then and told police she was 14 years old despite graduating from high school years earlier.

Her story was pieced together with little evidence. She said she travelled to Australia from Europe and had been abandoned. She asked for shelter and food and she received it: there was no reason to believe she was fabricating her story.

She told police she’d been to Lord Howe Island with her uncle before the two were separated. To prove it, she produced a bank receipt that was later revealed to have been forged.

So convincing was her story she was accepted into a local high school but, as Konnikova points out in her book, it didn’t take long for police to realise they were being played for fools.

“They wanted to learn more about Dakota, to see how they could further help her. Concerned for her welfare — if she had been abused, perhaps there were things she wasn’t comfortable sharing — they searched her computer while she was out,” Konnikova wrote.

“There was Dakota, smiling, with her family, standing on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The photo had a date, and that date was a clue. The local police contacted the tour company in charge of bridge tours and asked to see records of the participants. It wasn’t long before they found a match: twenty-two-year-old Samantha Azzopardi. She wasn’t fourteen at all.”

Azzopardi was forced to own up to her lies in front of a magistrate at a Brisbane court where she faced and was convicted of charges including forging documents and false representation. The punishment was minor — a $500 fine — and freedom to come up with a new lie. It wouldn’t be long before she resurfaced, this time in Perth.

She was booted out of Dublin and Calgary for her deceit.

A TROUBLED GYMNAST FROM RUSSIA

Azzopardi’s identity changed in 2011 when she turned up as a troubled gymnast with roots in Russia and a new first name: Emily.

She told a friend she was the top under 16 gymnast in the country and that her entire family had died tragically in a murder-suicide in France. Of course, none of that was true.

From there she convinced her friend’s family to take her in. To complete the ruse she stole the identity of an adoption specialist and a judge and emailed the family the requisite paperwork to complete the process. She enrolled in school (again) but, like always, the lies disconnected and her story fell apart. Authorities slapped more penalties on the serial liar but she was at it again a few years later. Her next lie made international news.

It was in Dublin at a post office where a young girl unable to speak and barely able to stand stood out from the crowd. It was 2013 and Azzopardi was back to her old tricks.

A passerby, concerned for the young woman’s welfare, phoned police who turned up and began questioning her. There was only one problem: Azzopardi wasn’t speaking.

Instead of words, the young woman drew pictures. She illustrated through stick figure drawings of a young woman on a bed surrounded by men that she’d been the victim of sex trafficking, torture and abuse. Authorities bought it hook, line and sinker.

Baffled, police circulated pictures of Azzopardi and went knocking door-to-door. They allegedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless police hours trying to solve the puzzle before Azzorpardi’s mother’s former boyfriend, a man named Joe Brennan, phoned police with the answer.

The story was picked up by newspapers around the world and the Independent newspaper in Ireland reported Azzopardi received a suspended prison sentence for duping authorities. She was kicked out of Ireland but not dissuaded from the games she enjoyed playing so much. In Canada a year later she told the same story all over again. Again, she was convincing.

Calgary Police charged her with public mischief and guarded her on a flight out of the country. A police spokeswoman said Azzopardi used the name Hepburn when she first turned up and health care workers “spent countless hours working on the alleged victim to establish the extend of her abuse and provide services for her recovery”.

“We don’t know exactly how she got here,” the officer said. “We are concerned about this happening somewhere else in Canada or anywhere.”

Calgary Police initially tried to help Aurora Hepburn. Picture: Calgary Police Service

‘I WAS SHOCKED WHEN I SAW HER ON THE NEWS’

People who knew Azzopardi growing up say she always had a propensity for the far-fetched.

Ms Levi said she told people in high school she was Lindsay Lohan. When the movie Freaky Friday came out, Azzopardi allegedly died her hair to match the Hollywood star.

“She was a really smart student, she always did her work and was conscientious. She had a small circle of friends (and) I guess she was a bit of an attention seeker. She would walk out of class sometimes and the teacher would have to go after her.”

She said Azzopardi was not manipulative but was very convincing.

“When I knew her she would make me do things that she wanted to do. She forced me to skip school with her. She made me climb the school roof with her.”

Ms Levi told news.com.au Azzopardi never let her visit her home.

“To be honest, I really didn’t know her family. I never met anybody from her family. I found it strange because we would always hang out. I brought her to my house a few times. She would always say: ‘My dad is in America.”

Ms Levi said Azzopardi was troubled but she was a good friend and she hoped she received the help she needed.

“She was a good kid and I’m glad we crossed paths.”

Another school friend who asked not to be identified said she last saw Azzopardi in Campbelltown “two or three years ago” and she seemed well.

“She was a great friend and I hope she’s safe, wherever she is.”

In her book, Konnikova explores why people fall for elaborate lies.

“When we’re immersed in a story we let our guard down. We focus in a way we wouldn’t if someone were just trying to catch us with a random phrase or picture or interaction.”

She said the more powerful a story is, the more likely we are to accept it as truthful. She said the opportunity to offer help overrides any suspicion.

“Emotions on high, empathy engaged, we become primed to help. Azzopardi may have been lying, but that isn’t all she was doing. She was also giving people the opportunity to shine in the humanitarian light that they always suspected lay within them.”

@ro_smith and [e-mail]

The Confidence Game comes out next week.