Young and beautiful, an immigrant whose dream led to jail

Sydney

Growing up in Stockholm, Charlotte Karin Lindstrom dreamed of fame, fortune and a 'fairytale' romance. Sadly, those ambitions have led her to a Sydney prison cell and the dubious celebrity of being a drug dealer's plaything.

Since May last year, the blond 'party princess' with a taste for designer clothes, fast cars and wealthy men has dominated headlines in the Sydney press, starting with her spectacular arrest in a city hotel room where, police say, she had been entertaining a group of stockbrokers.

Earlier on the day of her arrest, the model, sometime waitress and good-time girl had offered an undercover policeman A$200,000 (HK$1.37 million) to murder two witnesses who were about to testify against her fiance, a car dealer allegedly involved in a plot to import A$160 million of Ecstasy pills.

Surveillance tapes of her chat with a man Lindstrom believed to be a hit man sent a shiver through the court. 'In the hospital or the cemetery?' he asks after being handed an envelope containing photos of the two victims. 'Cemetery,' she coolly replies.

This week Lindstrom, 24, was back in court testifying at the trial of her fiance. The man, who cannot be named, has been charged with soliciting and conspiracy to murder, and four counts of manufacturing a prohibited drug.