Former soap star Lincoln Lewis was called to give evidence in the appeal of Lydia Abdelmalek, who allegedly used his identity to dupe women. Photo / Getty Images
Former soap star Lincoln Lewis was called to give evidence in the appeal of Lydia Abdelmalek, who allegedly used his identity to dupe women. Photo / Getty Images
A woman who allegedly posed as a Home and Away actor to "catfish" victims has told a "pack of lies", a court has been told.
Lydia Abdelmalek was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for six counts of stalking in 2019.
But she immediately appealed against the sentence and the 32-year-old took to the stand in the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday.
She allegedly used various online personas, including that of former Home and Away actor Lincoln Lewis, to stalk multiple people, including two Queensland women.
Abdelmalek was grilled about inconsistencies in what she told police and her latest evidence in court about her contact with one of the alleged victims.
She knew the woman, they were acquaintances but not friends, she told the court.
"What I want to suggest to you is that everything you're saying about [the alleged victim] is an absolute pack of lies," Crown lawyer Angela Moran asked.
Moran put to the alleged stalker that she clearly denied having any kind of relationship with the alleged victim in multiple interviews with officers.
"No, I did not," Abdelmalek said.
Lydia Abdelmalek is accused of posing as Home and Away actor Lincoln Lewis. Photo / Facebook
In a police interview aired in court, a detective questioned Abdelmalek about whether she ever spoke to the woman directly "for any reason".
"Not that I know of," Abdelmalek said.
When probed about the contradiction, she responded that the detective didn't put whether she "talked" to the alleged victim.
"I communicated through emails – this is 'did you ever talk to her' and that would have been a completely different thing," Abdelmalek said.
"I spoke to her [the alleged victim] with emails, phone calls and messages but [the detective] didn't put it to me, 'Did you ever have a phone call with her?'"
The alleged victim later took her own life.
Abdelmalek earlier gave evidence that she was receiving "harassment calls" and someone had accessed her iCloud account.
A cyber expert previously testified the volume of data on multiple devices could only have been created by a nation state actor if it wasn't created by Abdelmalek, the court was told.
"If it's not created by you, is only consistent with the activity of a national state threat actor willing to invest millions and millions of dollars to frame you," Moran said.
Abdelmalek was asked if she was an enemy of any foreign government and said no.
The appeal – which has run for more than 60 days – continues in front of Judge Claire Quin.
