Premier Daniel Andrews even joined the appeal, saying on Facebook: "I can't imagine what Dee and Jay are going through. Please help them get these precious photos back." Kamal saw an opportunity when she came across the Facebook post and three days later contacted Mr Windross claiming she had the phone and would return it for $1000. As Amiyah breathed through her final moments, Kamal was badgering Mr Windross with messages. Between 5.47pm on April 23 and 5.05pm the next day, there were at least 150 messages between Kamal and Mr Windross. She threatened to sell the phone or delete the images if the Windrosses didn't pay up.

But she never had the phone. Amiyah died from an undiagnosed neurological condition hours later on April 24. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Kamal has pleaded guilty to blackmail and has been in prison for six months since her arrest. The Windrosses said Kamal inflicted lasting trauma at the lowest point of their lives.

"She thought she could make a few quick bucks out of someone who experiences the most harrowing moment of her life," Ms Windross said in a tearful victim impact statement. Kamal had given the couple hope of retrieving the precious photos. But that hope was "ripped away in an instant", Ms Windross said, all while "my daughter was ripped away from me in death". "If someone can be so cruel in such a horrible time how could I ever trust people to show care or empathy again?" When Amiyah's parents should have been grieving they were speaking to police and in court.

"You will always have the opportunity to love your children. I will never have that again but you had the audacity to sit in court and say your husband wouldn't cope without you," Ms Windross said. Mr Windross said every day of Amiyah's life was a struggle, in which she was often distressed and slept in 15-minute snatches, only when held. Despite that, "my hero, my daughter" cracked a smile every now and then. "It wouldn't happen often but occasionally she managed to find happiness in the body that was torturing her," her father said. Amiyah Windross died on April 24. Credit:Dee Windross/ Facebook In the months since Amiyah's death, Mr Windross has lost two jobs and the couple's relationship has been strained.

"I don't know if there's a word in the English dictionary that describes you as a person, and it pains me to describe you as a person," he told Kamal. Defence lawyer Rahmin de Krester conceded the crime was "entirely opportunistic". Kamal, who has two children in Malaysia, arrived in Australia with her husband in September last year. The 25-year-old woman came on a bridging visa and struggled to make ends meet as an Uber Eats delivery rider. Mr de Krester said Kamal had written letters of apology to the Windrosses and her guilty plea to blackmail indicated her remorse. "She's done the wrong thing," Mr de Krester said.

"It was a cruel and criminal hoax that took advantage of these people when they were at their lowest." But Judge Liz Gaynor rejected suggestions the crime was just a "terrible mistake" and said Kamal would serve more time behind bars. She said Kamal's "horrendous" crime was "almost unimaginable" for the Windrosses to endure. "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," she said. Kamal, who wept during Thursday's hearing, will be deported when she is released.

She will likely remain in prison until at least February as Judge Gaynor awaits a medical report which outlines her intellectual functioning. Kamal has an IQ of 69, within the threshold for an intellectual disability. The phone hasn't been found. with AAP