A woman accused of paying dark web scammers to murder her wealthy parents allegedly had an "acrimonious" relationship with them, feeling the couple had excluded and invalidated her as she grew up.
New details of the case against the 28-year-old Canberra woman can be revealed after a prosecution case statement was tendered to the ACT Supreme Court on Thursday, when she was granted day bail.
The woman has pleaded not guilty to two counts each of incitement to murder and theft, as well as single charges of burglary and money laundering. She is currently awaiting the allocation of trial dates.
Prosecutors allege she stole $35,000 from her parents by transferring herself money from their bank accounts without permission in September 2020.
The 28-year-old, who cannot be named because of a non-publication order, then allegedly accessed a dark web forum called The Sinaloa Cartel Marketplace and offered $20,000 to have her parents killed.
She allegedly entered into an agreement to pay half the fee upfront and then provide the balance when she received an inheritance, only for UK-based journalists to foil the apparent plot by alerting police.
When the woman fronted court on Thursday, Justice David Mossop received a case statement he described as outlining "very serious allegations, arising in very unusual circumstances".
The document details the accused having had "a difficult and at times acrimonious relationship" with her parents since her teenage years, believing they had not been supportive and present during her youth.
Prosecutors say she wrote a note, around the time of her alleged offending, about her "particularly difficult relationship" with her mother.
"Dear Mum. The love I feel for you is overwhelming. All consuming," the note reads.
"You brought me into this world when you didn't have time for [me] and I hate you for it. You raised me to feel neglected, unworthy and unlovable.
"I know you had good intentions, you did the best you could and blame is an unhelpful thing. I've become an adult who loves you so fiercely but can't love herself.
"What is wrong with me that made me so easy to neglect? So hard to raise? Why is it so hard for you to just show me I was worth something?
"I forever grieve the loss of a parent I never had, of a relationship I will never experience, of bittersweet pity love I don't want.
"I want you to hug me and tell me its [sic] all going to be okay. I will never be enough for you and that kills me."
The woman's parents owned a successful Canberra business and their respective estates were valued at about $8 million around the time in question, according to the case statement.
Meanwhile, the accused, who stood to receive one-third of her parents' estates if they died, had just $2.36 in the bank a few days before her alleged offending began.
"The [prosecution] will allege the accused was in dire financial circumstances at the time of the offending and that this was motivation for the conduct," the case statement says.
The accused's parents were never physically harmed despite the woman's alleged attempts to have them killed, with ACT Policing tipped off to the apparent plot by employees of a company conducting research for a British Broadcasting Corporation podcast about "contract violence websites".
One of the employees emailed police in October 2020, saying he had seen a post on the dark web that specified the alleged victims' address and named them as "targets for an assassination order".
Detectives who investigated the report concluded the people behind the forum, which has since disappeared from the dark web, were scam artists who never intended to provide its advertised services, which included "murder-for-hire".
Having spent most of the time since her December 2020 arrest behind bars on remand, the accused sought day bail on Thursday in order to secure and vacate her ACT home so it could be rented out.
Justice Mossop said people were believed to have been squatting in the home during the 28-year-old's incarceration, and she suspected "antisocial and illegal activity has taken place there".
Prosecutor Sofia Janackovic did not oppose the day bail application, and Justice Mossop said he believed conditions could reduce any risks posed by the woman to an acceptable level.
The judge accordingly approved the woman's conditional release next Tuesday morning, ordering her to surrender herself to the court again that afternoon in order for her to be returned to Canberra's jail.
