Home and Away star Lincoln Lewis refused to help a woman who had been duped into believing they had been dating because he was worried about his own image, a court has heard.
Lewis endured a scathing grilling on Tuesday in his second day in the witness box over the appeal by Melbourne woman Lydia Abdelmalek over her sentence for pretending to be him.
Appearing in County Court Of Victoria via videolink, the Aussie soap star was forced to defend his actions after being asked by Abdelmalek's victim in 2011 to go to police to report his identity had been stolen.
Home and Away star Lincoln Lewis was more worried about negative press than helping a woman who would later suicide because she was duped by a person pretending to be him, a court has heard
Lydia Abdelmalek (right), and her father leave the County Court of Victoria last year
The court heard it took Lewis six long years before he finally made a statement to police.
The woman, whom he had known personally, would tragically suicide before her tormentor was brought to justice.
Abdelmalek was sentenced in June 2019 to a two-year, eight-month prison term for six counts of stalking, employing what one victim called 'sick mind games', impersonating Lewis.
She immediately appealed the sentence and has remained practically free in the community ever since.
Lewis had spent most of Monday giving evidence on behalf of the prosecution in the appeal trial.
On Tuesday, Abdelmalek's barrister Richard Edney launched into an extraordinary attack on him, which at one point saw prosecutors intervene.
Lewis had been trying to explain how his voice message had got on what police allege was Abdelmalek's phone as part of her cruel hoax.
But Mr Edney just wanted him to answer his specific questions.
'Have you finished your speech?' the barrister barked.
Mr Edney took Lewis to the dead woman's statement to police in which she claimed the pair 'ceased being friends' in June 2011.
Abdelmalek had pretended to be Lewis and used other aliases to stalk seven people for about four years from May that year.
The court heard the woman told police Lewis had agreed to meet up with her at Bondi to discuss the situation, but pulled out at the last minute.
The former Home and Away (pictured) star explained how powerless the catfishing left him
Lincoln Lewis in a recent Instagram shot. He was grilled in the virtual witness box on Tuesday
'Lincoln Lewis did not meet up with me and he later told me that he wanted nothing to do with making a complaint to the police because of his reputation and his job as an actor,' the woman told police.
'He did not want his work prospects in the future to be affected by making such a complaint. He was worried the story would be made known to the media and he did not want that to occur.'
Lewis denied the accusation.
'I remember saying to [her] that being that someone is pretending to be me and not actually being me, the person doing this, I don't really know what to do and so I told her she needed to talk to the police.'
The court heard the woman told police she had been 'shocked' by Lewis' initial response to her request for assistance back in 2011.
'I was shocked he would not support me making a complaint to police ... because of his lack in interest in doing so, we ceased
