Siti Kamal (pictured), 24, admitted to trying to blackmail $1,000 from the parents of the dying baby girl
A Malaysian woman who blackmailed the parents of a dying baby with precious photos on their stolen phone has been slammed for her ‘extraordinary cruelty’.
A judge ripped into Siti Kamal after she tried to extort $1,000 from an anguished couple, whose baby was dying in Melbourne.
Jay and Dee Windross had issued an urgent plea to trace their stolen phone in April 2019, as it contained special memories of their daughter Amiyah.
Amiyah, who was 11 months-old, died in April, days after a mobile phone containing irreplaceable family pictures was stolen from a Melbourne shopping centre.
During a hearing in the County Court of Victoria on Monday, Judge Elizabeth Gaynor indicated she would send Kamal to jail.
Baby Amiyah (pictured) tragically died in April after succumbing to an undiagnosed neurological issue
‘You’ve got a couple spending their last days with their dying child,’ the judge told Kamal during a plea hearing on Monday.
‘In a situation of almost indescribable anguish … I can hardly think of a worse case (of blackmail).
‘The extraordinary cruelty that this involved is a concern.’
Kamal, 24, pleaded guilty in July to blackmailing the couple in the hours before and after little Amiyah’s death from an undiagnosed neurological condition.
She had contacted Jay and Dee Windross on WhatsApp after they made a desperate public plea for the return of the Samsung Galaxy S8 phone.
The cruel thief said she would only return the phone – and the precious pictures – if the grieving couple paid her.
Melbourne couple Jay and Dee Windross’ (pictured) 11-month-old daughter Amiyah had been fighting an ‘undiagnosed neurological issue from the day she was born’, and died in April
In a cruel twist – it appears Kamal never even had the phone, and it still hasn’t been returned.
Mr Windross said she continued to text him through the night while he had been trying to spend ‘every emotional minute’ with his child.
‘It was a hoax. Not only was it a complete and utter waste of my time, it was interrupting my final moments with my dying daughter,’ he wrote on Facebook.
The couple believe the phone was stolen from the toilets next to Target at Chadstone Shopping Centre in April.
‘It’s despicable. It’s disgusting, Ms Windross said at the time.
‘Why would anyone do that and she knew the position we were in. You could tell by the messages. How could you be so disgraceful?’
‘The hours that we spent holding our daughter, this woman was sitting in her own house demanding money from us.
Kamal (pictured) had contacted the couple as they spent their last precious moments with their dying daughter
Ms Windross (pictured, left) left her phone in a toilet cubicle at Melbourne’s Chadstone Shopping Centre on April 20, and her husband (right) made a desperate plea for its return
Kamal contacted the couple via WhatsApp after they made several desperate posts on social media to help them retrieve the phone. Her husband is pictured leaving court
Her barrister Rahmin De Krester acknowledged the woman would be handed a jail sentence but asked that be time already served in custody.
‘I accept that this is a morally indefensible crime,’ Mr De Krester said.
He asked Judge Gaynor to take into account Kamal’s age, lack of criminal history, early guilty plea and problems with impulsivity.
She does not have a diagnosable disability or personality condition and the judge indicated she was preparing to hand down a longer jail sentence.
‘The only conclusion the court is left with is this was a deliberate, albeit impulsive, decision to act in an extraordinarily cruel way,’ Judge Gaynor said.
‘These victims were chosen because of their vulnerability.
‘To see an opportunity in the suffering of others is extraordinarily concerning.’
Kamal will be sentenced on March 10 and is likely to be deported to Malaysia after her release from jail.
A woman tried to exploit the couple’s vulnerability by extorting $1000 out of them while their daughter was dying