Accused child rapist Anthony Sampieri’s eerie, loner childhood revealed

Former students of a Christian college on the northern beaches who remember accused child rapist Anthony Sampieri have described him as a teenage loner who went on to become a bouncer at notorious Kings Cross strip club Porky’s in the 1980s.

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Accused child rapist Anthony Sampieri was allegedly making a sex film as he choked and attacked a seven-year-old girl in a dance school toilet.

The schoolgirl’s horrific ordeal was revealed when Sampieri, 54, faced Waverley Local Court yesterday, his head bowed as he hid two black eyes.

The former youth worker is charged with choking the girl until she was “incapable of resistance” and filming her for the purpose of producing child abuse material.

The sickening accusations levelled in court comes as former schoolmates described Sampieri as a teenage loner who went onto to become a bouncer at notorious Kings Cross strip club Porky’s in the 1980s.

Anthony Sampieri appeared via video link at Waverly Court on Monday and didn’t look up. Artist: Vincent de Gouw

Sampieri is also charged with stabbing the girl’s mother in the hand with a scalpel as she helped rescue her daughter alongside local dentist Jeffrey Stack and Nicola “Nick” Gilio.

Sampieri also faces two charges of wounding Mr Gilio, who was allegedly stabbed in the melee.

The former St Paul’s Christian Brothers College Manly student, who started Year 7 at the northern beaches school in 1977, began hanging out with the “wrong crowd” before leaving school early without graduating.

“Was a bit of a (loner), not many ‘group’ friends,” one former classmate said.

Another remembered him for a tattoo he got.

“He got himself a tattoo of a compass on his right arm high enough up so it wouldn’t show when he wore his short sleeve school shirt,” a schoolmate said.

Anthony Sampieri (circled in red) in Year 7.

One former classmate said he was “never the sharpest tool in the pencil case.”

Former schoolmates of Sampieri’s have also recalled on Facebook a bizarre incident where he burst into tears when he was a young student after learning that Elvis had died in 1977.

“He sat in front of me … crying, I asked what was wrong and he told me that Elvis had died,” one man wrote.

Another classmate said he remembered Sampieri singing British rock band Squeeze’s 1979 hit Cool for Cats at school.

“He was a nice guy, looked like a man in year 8 when we were all still kids,” another former student wrote.

Sampieri was arrested after his release from hospital on Sunday.

Appearing via videolink from Silverwater Jail, Sampieri also had a visible injury to his nose in court.

According to the court charge sheet, the girl’s ordeal lasted between 7.30pm and 7.45pm on November 15.

Sampieri is taken to Maroubra Police Station after his released from hospital on Sunday. Picture: Hollie Adams

Sampieri faces becoming the first person to be jailed for life if convicted of having sexual intercourse with a child aged under 10 after the maximum sentence was increased from 25 years in 2015.

The offence carries a standard non-parole period of 15 years.

Sampieri is also charged with aggravated kidnapping, assault with intent to have sexual intercourse, two counts of committing an act of indecency and filming the act to produce child abuse material.

He faces separate charges of indecent assault and using a child aged under 14 to produce child abuse material.

His barrister Ken Buckman said Sampieri agreed to a court order to provide his DNA to police. He was remanded in custody to return to court on January 23.