Exclusively on Paramount+, Con Girl is a new true crime series which sets out to uncover the perplexing life of serial con artist, Samantha Azzopardi. But who is Samantha Azzopardi? What were the fake identities she created? And where is Samantha Azzopardi now?
The Australian-born criminal has certainly kept herself busy, as it's thought she's amassed over 70 different identities in total and repeatedly deceived victims and the authorities all over the world. Azzopardi first made international headlines back in 2013 when she was found wandering the streets of Dublin close to the General Post Office (earning her the nickname 'GPO Girl' in the local press) and the Garda (Irish police) believed her to be a 14-year-old victim of sex trafficking who spoke very little English. At the time, she was actually in her mid-twenties.
In a desperate bid to identify her, eventually the Garda teamed up with Interpol and the Missing Persons Bureau to release a photo of Azzopardi – which is when her schemes began to unravel on a global scale. It turned out, Azzopardi had also once posed as a Russian gymnast claiming to have lost all of her family. Unfortunately, being outed by the press still didn't manage to put an end to her web of lies.
For the first time in the new series, some of Azzopardi's victims have spoken out on the trauma she caused through her deceit. Azzopardi's motives behind her crimes remain a mystery, as she never physically hurt anyone, rarely stole from her victims and didn't appear to be money-motivated. Con Girl takes viewers on a quest to find out who the real Samantha Azzopardi is.
Actor Emma Krieg plays Samantha Azzopardi throughout the series, pictured below:
Paramount
Who is Samantha Azzopardi?
Samantha Azzopardi, thought to be of Maltese descent, was born to a middle class family in Campbelltown, New South Wales, Australia, on 21 August 1988 in. She attended Mount Annan High School.
Later in life, Azzopardi went on to trick many people and police officers beyond her hometown, extending her web of lies far across Australia, and in Ireland and Canada, where she would lure people into believing the various false identities she constructed for herself. Perhaps this is what makes her case so baffling, as there seems to be no financial or other motivation for Azzopardi doing so (e.g. she never physically hurt or extracted money from anyone) beyond garnering sympathy and attention. As the series Con Girl reveals, the emotional and psychological damage she impacted on her victims is devastating.
What crimes did Samantha Azzopardi commit?
Throughout decade-plus spree of lies, it's believed that Azzopardi went by over 75 identities and adopted monikers such as Annika, Coco, Layla, Emily and Harper. Here are some of the most notable crimes she committed:
- In 2011, Azzopardi pretended to be a 15-year-old Russian gymnast named Emily Sciberras, who claimed her entire family was killed in a murder-suicide. After taking pity on her, a family welcomed Azzopardi into their home, even offering to adopt her after hearing such a sad story – until suspicious documents during the adoption process revealed she wasn't who she claimed to be.
- In 2014, Azzopardi claimed to be a sexual assault and abduction survivor named Aurora Hepburn, in Calgary, Canada. It's reported that officials spent over £90,000 assembling a case on her before being made aware of her true identity. In December of that year, Azzopardi was sentenced to two months detention (which she'd already served by that time) and then deported back to Australia. But this didn't put an end to her fantasist lies.
- Two years later, it's said that Azzopardi pretended to be a 13-year old named Harper Hart, even enrolling in an Australian high school – by the following year, she had been charged with "dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception, for the education, counselling, food, accommodation and electronics she was given while posing as Harper." After pleading guilty, Azzopardi spent a year in jail.
- In October 2019, Azzopardi met a French couple who were new to Melbourne. Claiming to be 18-years-old and called Sakah, the couple welcomed her into their home as an au pair under false pretences. A month later, Azzopardi said she was taking their two children on a picnic but in reality, took them to a psychiatric hospital and claimed to have been abused by her uncle. She was later given a two-year sentence for child kidnapping, theft and property deception.
- Over a year later, Azzopardi pleaded guilty to false representation to police, after posing as a 14-year-old abuse victim from France. She was sentenced to 17 months in jail in November 2022.
Where is Samantha Azzopardi now?
Now aged 34, some reports claim Azzopardi has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, alongside a rare psychiatric syndrome called pseudologia fantastica – where patients represent fantasies as real occurrences. "Pseudologia fantastica goes by multiple different names including pathologic lying and mythomania," says one research paper by the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "Stories typically feature the pseudologue as the hero or victim and seem geared to achieve acceptance, admiration, and sympathy."
During her most recent trial in Australia in November 2022 (for her 100th offence), she pleaded guilty to knowingly making a false representation to police that she was a victim of child neglect. However, after being issued a seventeen-month sentence, Azzopardi's lawyer argued it was a "manifestly excessive" length of time, given her complex mental health situation.
"Ms Azzopardi is unable at the present time to control this impulse (to make false reports) and it is unambiguous in the (medical) reports that this will not change until she has received intense and ongoing psychological assistance," the lawyer said [as reported by the Daily Mail]. "It would appear that she is trying to obtain the care that she feels she never received as a child, now as an adult, by making these fictitious accounts. No one should go to jail for that."
Judge John North agreed that Azzopardi "doesn't appear to have any real motives" and reduced her "somewhat harsh" sentence to just three months. Because of this, Azzopardi was released from prison on 15 December 2022. So far, there's been no word as to who – or where in the world – she is right now, however Judge North said he hoped Azzopardi would take this opportunity to seek help for her mental health issues.
All episodes of Con Girl are available from 22 February 2023 on Paramount+
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Jennifer Savin is Cosmopolitan UK's multiple award-winning Features Editor, who was crowned Digital Journalist of the Year for her work tackling the issues most important to young women. She regularly covers breaking news, cultural trends, health, the royals and more, using her esteemed connections to access the best experts along the way. She's grilled everyone from high-profile politicians to A-list celebrities, and has sensitively interviewed hundreds of people about their real life stories. In addition to this, Jennifer is widely known for her own undercover investigations and campaign work, which includes successfully petitioning the government for change around topics like abortion rights and image-based sexual abuse. Jennifer is also a published author, documentary consultant (helping to create BBC’s Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next?) and a patron for Y.E.S. (a youth services charity). Alongside Cosmopolitan, Jennifer has written for The Times, Women’s Health, ELLE and numerous other publications, appeared on podcasts, and spoken on (and hosted) panels for the Women of the World Festival, the University of Manchester and more. In her spare time, Jennifer is a big fan of lipstick, leopard print and over-ordering at dinner. Follow Jennifer on Instagram, X or LinkedIn.
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