A woman has pleaded guilty after blackmailing desperate parents who begged for the return of a lost phone containing memories of their dying daughter.
The Melbourne father of 11-month-old Amiyah, who died in April from an undiagnosed neurological condition, said 25-year-old Siti Nurhidayah Kamal stole "the last opportunity we had with our daughter".
Kamal, a Malaysian mother-of-two, pleaded guilty in the Victoria County Court on Thursday to blackmailing Jay and Dee Windross, who were desperate for the return of a lost phone containing photos of Amiyah.
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"You took those moments away in the last opportunity we had with our daughter," Mr Windross said in court, Nine News reports.
Amiyah died days after the phone and its irreplaceable memories went missing from a shopping centre.
Following the couple's public appeal for the phone, Kamal contacted Windross and said she would return the device for AU$1000 (NZ$1077).
As the parents spent their final hours with Amiyah, Mr Windross was being sent incessant demands from Kamal. In his effort to get back the phone, 158 text messages were exchanged between the two.
Mr Windross said in his statement that "there was finally a tiny light of positivity to give us something back".
Judge Liz Gaynor called Kamal's offending "horrendous".
"At the point at which their daughter is actually dying, to be faced with this is almost unimaginable," Gaynor said.
"It's an exploitation of two people who are vulnerable and desperate to regain possession of something that's very precious to them. It's a devastating loss."
Kamal has remained in custody since her arrest in April and will stay in remand until February. She is awaiting a further psychiatric report.
According to AAP, the phone has yet to be found.
Newshub.
