Anthony Sampieri tried on dresses before alleged sex attack on girl, 7
The man accused of sexually assaulting a girl in a Sydney dance studio spent the day before the horrific attack trying on dresses in a shop, his bizarre behaviour emerging as his mother said her son had ruined her family.
The man accused of sexually assaulting a girl in a Sydney dance studio spent the day before the horrific attack trying on dresses in a shop, his bizarre behaviour emerging as his mother said her son had ruined her family.
The boutique was just 300m from the Kogarah dance studio where Anthony Peter Sampieri, 54, allegedly sexually assaulted the seven-year-old girl.
Police turned up at the Only Love AJ shop on Belgrave St after finding Sampieri had kept a business card, given to him by a female employee, in his pants pocket.
“He spent nearly two hours in the change room, he grabbed three or four dresses and he tried them on,” Only Love AJ employee Kim Pi told The Sunday Telegraph.
“A few times I ask him, ‘are you OK? Do you need help?’ and he says, ‘I am OK, I don’t want to come out because too many people here … I don’t want people to see me in the lady dresses.’ ”
Sampieri remains in hospital more than a week after he was allegedly found sexually assaulting the girl, who had been taking lessons, inside a men’s toilet next to St George Dance Studio on November 15.
An urgent review ordered by the Corrections Minister revealed he was on parole for another sex attack on a 60-year-old woman in the Illawarra region in 2012.
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Sampieri had been staying in a small unit with his mother in Kogarah, a few hundred metres from the dance studio.
“We are very hurt — it is very bad,” his mother Lucy said.
“There is already so much information out there and it’s ruined my family. There was no sign.”
Detectives have obtained CCTV footage from businesses along Railway Pde as they attempted to retrace Sampieri’s alleged path to the dance studio.
They also visited the Only Love AJ shop the day after the attack and obtained footage of Sampieri wearing a cap and a carrying a backpack, perusing the clothing racks.
Ms Pi said Sampieri had come into the shop in recent months to try on dresses and on the last occasion took her business card and said he’d return.
Sampieri has been in hospital under Correctives Services guard receiving treatment for facial injuries allegedly sustained during a citizen’s arrest. He is yet to be charged.
Nick Gilio had been watching his own daughter in dance class when he walked into the men’s bathroom at 7.55pm and allegedly interrupted a horrific sexual assault.
He fought with the man while the little girl’s mother scooped up her daughter and ran out. During the alleged confrontation with Sampieri, Mr Gilio was stabbed in the chest and torso.
Dentist Dr Jeffrey Stack heard the commotion from his surgery next door and ran in to help and held him down until police arrived.
The case has rocked multiple levels of government after it emerged Sampieri should have been charged weeks before the attack for harassing a woman in sickening phone calls.
The calls were reported to police but he was not charged, nor was the parole board informed of the breach.
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