KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 — Malaysian Siti Nurhidayah Kamal has pled guilty in a Melbourne Magistrates Court to trying to extort A$1,000 (RM2885) from an Australian couple in return for a handphone that contained pictures of their dying daughter despite not actually being in possession of the device.
Australian media reported the 24-year-old married Malaysian has been denied bail as she has been deemed a flight risk.
She has also not been sentenced yet.
According to Australian website news.com.au, Siti Nurhidayah contacted Jay and Dee Windross and demanded A$1,000, promising to give them their Samsung Galaxy S8 phone lost in a mall last April, which contained precious pictures of their dying 11-month-old daughter Amiyah.
Citing from the charge sheet, news.com.au reported Siti Nurhidayah made the blackmail attempt after seeing Dee's Facebook post pleading for the return of the phone.
Police said Siti Nurhidayah initially contacted Dee to apologise for picking up the phone and promised to put it in the couple’s letterbox, but then demanded they deposit the cash in her account first.
News.com.au also reported that Siti Nurhidayah is wanted by Malaysian police in relation to an airline ticket scam case.
Several people have lodged police reports against her for allegedly posing as an AirAsia employee and taking money for tickets for six passengers to travel at a cost of $A993 (RM2863)
Siti Nurhidayah reportedly left her two children behind in Malaysia to move to a Springvale shadehouse in September 2018.
