— With AAP.
A woman will spend the next two months in custody after being accused of blackmailing the Melbourne parents of a dying baby over their stolen phone.
Siti Nurhidayah Kamal, 24, is charged with blackmail after Jay and Dee Windross alleged she tried to get them to pay $1000 for the return of their phone, which contained the couple’s only photos of their terminally ill 11-month-old daugher, Amiyah.
Police allege the woman sent the couple a series of text messages claiming that she had their mobile phone as they spent their last moments with their daughter in hospital.
“While trying to spend every emotional minute with Amiyah and giving her all of my attention, I’m also responding to someone claiming to have our phone with all the memories of her,” Amiyah’s mother wrote on Facebook at the time.
Kamal was charged just two days after Amiyah died, last Wednesday.
The 11-month-old had been battling an undiagnosed neurological condition since birth.
Earlier this month, the Melbourne parents made a public plea for the return of their Samsung Galaxy S8, which was taken from a bathroom at Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne's southeast on April 20.
"Our 11 month daughter is currently deteriorating in ICU and is in her last days with us and this phone holds all our memories of her," Jay Windross wrote on Facebook.
He added the phone "means more than money to us. This is worth life to us", and offered a cash reward for its return.
But later Jay wrote they had been contacted by someone who claimed to have the phone and wanted $1000 for its return.
"It was a hoax! Not only was it a complete and utter waste of my time, it was interrupting my final moments with Amiyah," he said in another Facebook post.
Kamal faced Melbourne Magistrates Court via video link on Tuesday.
She sat with her hands clasped, speaking through a Malaysian interpreter to confirm her next court appearance on July 8.
Jay and Dee Windross were not in court but The Age reported that they were present in court on Monday when Kamal was denied bail.
The court heard Kamal and her husband, who both work as Uber Eats delivery cyclists and have two young children in Malaysia, have been struggling to get by, financially.
"We have had to pay hospital bills, car parking, everything, our mortgage bills, our everything, and she's in there crying because they don't earn enough money," Dee said outside court.
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Top Comments
This story is so heartbreaking and so tragic, that ANYone could do such a thing to a mother/father who has had to see their infant die, that is beyond cruel. I am sitting here thinking and I honestly can't think of any descriptive word to describe how low, evil and cruel that is.
A lot of us need money. I live on the breadline but I don't go around bribing money from the parents of a dying child. Grow up and take responsibility for what you've done and stop making excuses.