Jess thought she was in a long-distance relationship with Lincoln Lewis. It was all a lie.

Content warning: This story includes discussion of suicide that may be distressing to some readers. 

When flight attendant Jess* met Lincoln Lewis at work, she took a selfie with the Australian actor and shared it on social media.

She then saw what she thought was Lewis' Facebook profile and added him. There, the two started a friendship. 

But what Jess didn't know then was that the person she was speaking to wasn't Lewis at all, starting a decade-long nightmare for the single mum.

"People will never understand, and they’ll always think, 'How can you be so stupid?'," Jess told 60 Minutes on Sunday night.

"But until you’re in it, you won’t understand how difficult it is to get out of it."

Jess started messaging with catfish Lewis regularly. One day, their messages moved from Facebook to phone calls and texts.

"I recall him saying, 'Can I call you?'. I thought, 'Wow. Okay, why not?'.

"So I gave him my number."

Although they started a long-distance relationship, Jess and Lewis never met up in person. She said he always had "excuses" for why they couldn't meet up.

"I started to have a few little doubts. The fact that he wouldn’t meet me and, and stuff," she said.

"I started to have niggling doubts but I thought why would anyone contact me and, you know, want to lie to me?"

Jess asked to have a Skype call with 'Lincoln'. He agreed.

"The phone rang and sure enough, here is Lincoln Lewis talking to me," she said.

"And I just remember seeing him talking. I would say something and there’d be a bit of a delay and then a few minutes later you would see him, like, kind of laughing and throwing his head back... I was giddy. I was excited."

But after another flight attendant had told her the actor was on her Brisbane flight, despite Jess being told he was in Sydney in their messages, she confronted the person she was speaking to.

"The time that they were in the air – where he wouldn’t have been able to have contacted me – was the time that I had been talking to him all morning.

"And I then confronted him and said, 'You need to tell me who you are'."

Image: 60 Minutes.

She then managed to get in contact with the real Lewis who confirmed her worst fears.

"He said, 'Jess, I‘m sorry. I’m sorry that this has happened to you but it’s not me’. He said, 'It’s never been me'," Jess recalled.

The person Jess had actually been speaking to was 26-year-old Lydia Abdelmalek. 

Abdelmalek had tricked Jess into thinking she was speaking with the actor by using software that can take video footage of a person and turn it into a real-life scenario.

As soon as Jess found out that she was talking with an impersonator, she changed her phone number.

But within 10 minutes of doing so, Abdelmalek contacted Optus to get Jess’s new number and began stalking her.

Jess was forced to move house twice and changed her daughter’s school.

"I remember one night, I was in the foetal position on my bed. I’d had 50, 60 messages in a row with threats about my daughter," Jess said.

"My phone just kept ringing."

Jess eventually helped police catch Abdelmalek after asking her to deposit money into her bank account for a new phone.

Image: 60 Minutes.

Jess was one of five women who was stalked by Abdelmalek over the course of around four years through a variety of fake online personas she created.

The Melbourne woman impersonated various television soap stars and used their image and a fake Facebook account to lure in mostly female victims online. 

Once she gained their trust, Abdelmalek would then stalk, harass and intimidate the victims.

After months of being tricked into thinking she was dating Lewis online, Emma* also got in contact with the real Lewis.

The pair had been in similar circles during childhood and primary school, so they had an old mutual friend to help set up the phone call. 

In court testimony, Lewis said Emma was "rattled and a bit panicked" once they finally spoke. 

"Lincoln, I've got to ask you something and I really hope it's the answer that I'm hoping for because if it's not I don't know what I'm going to do," Lewis recalled Emma saying.

"Linc, I've thought for the last couple of months that you and I have been dating."

Lewis recounted in court: "I said, 'What, no, what are you talking about?' and then that's when she started to sound really stressed and panicked and started sort of mumbling a bit and then started saying, 'No, tell me you're lying'. She said, 'Linc I don't know who this is now. Linc this person has photos and videos of me'."

Lewis said Emma described the content she had sent as "intimate" and "very revealing" photos and videos.

Abdelmalek would use these images and videos to blackmail Emma and also harass and threaten her family and loved ones. 

It got to the point where Emma was receiving up to 80 messages a day, threatening her and her family and asking when she was going to end her own life.

In a later court trial, the judge said: "She was once held hostage on the phone and this person on the line said 'If you hang up, we're going to send those intimate photos to your boss' and she was kept on the phone for four hours. Her sister found her under the bed sheets crying, saying 'Please, please have mercy'."

Listen to Mamamia's daily news podcast, The Quicky. In this episode, they discuss Lydia Abdelmalek's 2019 court case. Post continues after audio.

It was a pattern Abdelmalek used continuously over the next few years, with her five victims.

But it was also a pattern that left all the victims – including Emma – deeply traumatised.

Emma was eventually diagnosed with PTSD and in 2018 she took her own life.

"She went from being this vivacious, bubbly, larger-than-life character who loved everything and loved her job, to somebody who became severely anxious, depressed and traumatised," the victim's sister said in court.

Jess and Emma never met in person, but they spoke regularly over the phone after Abdulmalek's arrest. 

During the trial, Jess recalled how Emma texted her saying she couldn't cope, just days before her suicide.

In 2019, Abdelmalek was sentenced to a one-year and nine-month minimum term for stalking her victims. Her legal team immediately appealed the decision, which resulted in a lengthy court process that was finalised in 2022. 

Judge Claire Quin had warned Abdelmalek and her lawyers "a number of times" that she may impose a more severe jail term if they continued to pursue the appeal.

In the end, Abdelmalek was sentenced to more time behind bars after losing an appeal – re-sentenced to four years in prison. 

With time served, she must serve two years and eight months before she will be eligible for parole.

Catfisher Lydia Abdelmalek has been sentenced to more jail time after losing her appeal. She posed as Home & Away star Lincoln Lewis, to stalk and persistently harass women online. One of her victims took her own life. She’s been jailed for 4 years. @7NewsMelbourne pic.twitter.com/eWRPPVTl8U

— Jayde Vincent (@JaydeVincent) October 25, 2022

Described as "calculated and cruel", Abdelmalek expressed no remorse during the legal matters.

Following the verdict, Lewis issued a statement, thanking the investigation team and those who came forward to bring Abdelmalek to account.

"It's hard finding the proper words or to articulate the feeling of relief that the cruel and horrendous actions committed by this person starting over a decade ago has finally ended with justice prevailing," he wrote.

"From my end, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to the detectives and prosecution team who've worked so tirelessly over the years on this case with the greatest amount of professionalism, dedication and empathy. Words aren’t enough for the incredible work you've done."

Meanwhile, Jess has shared just how much the catfishing has impacted her life.

"It's very hard to understand the psychological damage that it does. It wasn't catfishing. It was psychological abuse. It was sexual abuse."

Names have been changed for privacy/legal reasons.

If you think you may be experiencing depression or another mental health problem, please contact your general practitioner. If you're based in Australia, 24-hour support is available through Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyondblue on 1300 22 4636.

Feature Image: Channel Nine/60 Minutes.

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