Police have launched an internal investigation into why a recent series of sexually offensive phone calls allegedly made by Fairy Meadow parolee Anthony Peter Sampieri – the man now accused of raping a seven-year-old dance student at Kogarah – were not acted on.
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Police have revealed Sampieri was identified as the voice behind several telecommunications offences involving offensive phone calls earlier this year.
He was also identified after a woman reported offensive calls made to a business in Sydney’s south as recently as late last month.
No charges have been laid in connection with that report.
Late Tuesday, NSW Police advised that Deputy Commissioner Field Operations, Jeff Loy, had commissioned an internal investigation into the handling of these fresh allegations, “to ensure the highest standards of victim care were applied”.
Mr Loy has been in contact with the parents of the seven-year-girl, advising them of this development.
NSW Police are now appealing for anyone who may have been similarly contacted by Sampieri to come forward.
It was a condition of Sampieri’s parole that he be of good behaviour. He was also formally prohibited from committing any offences and required to “adapt to normal lawful community life”. He was required to abstain from drugs and alcohol and to “comply with all reasonable directions from a community corrections officer”, including participation in treatment programs.
The 54-year-old is recovering at St George Hospital after a Good Samaritan allegedly caught him naked in a dance school toilet cubicle on Thursday night, in the process of interfering with a child.
News.com.au reports a seven-year-old girl spent 30 minutes alone with the convicted sex offender before a male parent of another pupil interrupted.
Sampieri is accused of stabbing the parent, injuring him, before a second rescuer arrived and beat Sampieri so badly police have so far been unable to charge him.
Police have formed Strike Force Howelston to investigate.
The allegations come six years after Sampieri lured a 60-year-old woman into his Elliotts Road, Fairy Meadow unit and sexually assaulted her.
Court documents reveal the 2012 attack occurred as Sampieri was in the midst of a drug-fueled “sex binge”. For at least two weeks in the lead-up, he had been blitzing women with sexually explicit phone calls.
He would target women whose pictures and phone numbers appeared in local newspaper advertisements. His victims were aged 23-83. Police investigating the 2012 rape found at his home an envelope with names and numbers of women, with comments such as “very young” and “older”.
He originally faced eight charges for those calls, in which he asked the women “can I stick my tongue in your a---hole?” and shared other sexually explicit fantasies.
He was grunting and groaning as he called one woman who had recently advertised her change of office location in the newspaper.
Sampieri ultimately pleaded guilty to, and was sentenced in relation to, four charges, including aggravated sexual assault. The telecommunications offences were factored into the judge’s sentencing decision, but did not attract separate sentences.
The judge ordered Sampieri to serve a minimum four years’ imprisonment from October 22, 2012, plus an additional term of up to three years on parole. He became eligible for parole on October 21, 2016 but was only released on September 7 last year. His entire sentence was to expire on October 21, 2019.
A State Parole Authority NSW spokeswoman said parole was granted as it was Sampieri’s first period of adult incarceration and he had demonstrated satisfactory prison performance and had participated in relevant programs and/or counselling, including a sex offender program.
The state’s corrective services minister is also reviewing the circumstances surrounding Sampieri’s alleged offending.