Lydia Abdelmalek granted bail, ordered to stay off social media after being charged with six new offences

Melbourne woman Lydia Abdelmalek, who is appealing a sentence from 2019, allegedly boasted about being “very famous” before being slugged with a new stalking charge.

The 31-year-old also allegedly breached her County Court bail conditions, relating to the earlier conviction, which forbade her from posting on social media, by writing on Facebook: “I’m not her she’s actually got conditions that she can’t have social media.”

These allegations were contained within court documents and were released by the Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court, which heard that Ms Abdelmalek was facing six new charges including stalking, breaching her bail conditions, and sending menacing messages.

Ms Abdelmalek succeeded in being released on a second round of bail, after being convicted in the same court for other offences about two years ago.

Immediately after being convicted, Ms Abdelmalek appealed the sentence and was granted appeal bail by the County Court of Victoria, which allowed her to live in the community while her case made its way through the justice system.

As part of her bail conditions, she was ordered not to use social media.

But prosecutors alleged that Ms Abdelmalek not only breached that condition while on bail, but committed other crimes as she waited for her day in court.

Abdelmalek allegedly boasted online

Court documents say that in July or August last year, Ms Abdelmalek allegedly struck up a friendship with a woman and began following her on Instagram.

She later allegedly said to the woman: “Do you know I’m very famous, do you watch the news? I’m accused [sic] that I’m stalking people, but they are setting me up, can you believe that?”

Ms Abdelmalek then allegedly began questioning the woman about a secret relationship she was purportedly in with a married man.

The court heard that in March this year, police were called to Aldi in Epping after an alleged argument between Ms Abdelmalek and the married man, who told officers that he was concerned with how “obsessed” she was with their relationship.

Police accused Ms Abdelmalek of messaging the man: “The private investigator saw you and your girlfriend today.”

“Both victims believed they were physically followed by the accused as their outing was a last minute [sic] and no one knew about it,” court documents alleged.

Police later raided Ms Abdelmalek’s home and seized a number of items including an iPhone with a “partially nude male on back”, a Nokia covered in tape, and SD cards.

Ms Abdelmalek was taken into custody but Magistrate Meagan Keogh acknowledged that the charges against her remained allegations.

“You come before the court as someone who has been found guilty in the Magistrates’ Court but that order is stayed effectively while the matter is subject to the County Court appeal, so you don’t have any priors,” the magistrate said.

She granted Ms Abdelmalek bail with comprehensive conditions including a ban on social media.

“You’re not to use, post, comment, search, or search social media or message boards in either your own name and identity or any assumed or false names or identities, or create any social media accounts in either your own name or identity, or any assumed false identities,” the magistrate said.

“So, you can’t get on Facebook, you can’t get on Instagram, you can’t get on anything else … WhatsApp, Snapchat … the list goes on and on.

“Hopefully that means that it’s more difficult for you to engage in the type of behaviour that’s alleged, which is that you get online and you hunt down details and information about different people, and that you use that to sort of get into their lives and cause a bit of havoc for them.”

Ms Abdelmalek was also ordered to surrender her passport, not to leave Victoria or Australia, and comply with court orders.

Her lawyer, Sam Norton, took aim against one of Ms Abdelmalek’s accusers, accusing her of deleting messages between them.

He described her claims as “demonstrably false” and “deliberately misleading”.

“The messages which are provided, have been cultivated, edited, filleted,” Mr Norton said.

Victoria Police has since dropped a charge of unlawful assault against Ms Abdelmalek, but remained steadfast in opposing bail.

Sergeant Luke Devlin, a police prosecutor, accused Ms Abdelmalek of a pattern of behaviour.

“This is offending in the same style and manner,” Sergeant Devlin said.

“The fact that she’s on appeal bail for her County Court appeal has done nothing to prevent her from engaging in this course of conduct.

“She’s created two false accounts on Facebook, which you’ve clearly seen strong evidence about, that the IP address comes back to her residence, once again in exactly the same format as the previous case.

“None of that has stopped her from doing the same style of offending.”

But the magistrate said the risks of Ms Abdelmalek offending on bail could be managed.

Ms Abdelmalek will return to court in August.