Former teacher Vasilious Kafataris applies for bail after contacting witness, complainant

A former teacher accused of having sex with two teenage girls will remain behind bars after he contacted a witness and alleged victim while he was on bail.

Vasilious Kafataris leaves Parramatta District Court last year but broke his bail rules.

A former southwest Sydney English teacher accused of having sex with two teenage girls will remain behind bars after he admitted to contacting a witness and a complainant while he was on bail.

Vasilious Kafataris appeared via video link on Monday when Parramatta District Court heard he met a witness at Revesby McDonald’s on March 27 when a conversation covertly recorded him reading her statements from three other witnesses.

The woman is one of 27 tendency witnesses who is due to give evidence about his sexual interest in teenage girls.

The court heard the 55 year old admitted to breaching his bail conditions and he also contacted an alleged victim less than two months before the trial is due to begin on May 13.

The case involves four complainants from alleged incidents that occurred between January 2013 and April 2021.

Vasilious Kafataris in May 2021.

He was charged after State Crime Command’s Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad detectives began investigating him in April 2021 following reports he sexually touched a 17-year-old girl.

He has pleaded not guilty to six counts of sexual intercourse with a person under care between 17 and 18, four counts of sexually touching a person between 17 and 18 under special care, two counts of grooming a child for unlawful sexual activity, indecently assaulting a person under 16 years of age, indecently assaulting a person under 16 years of age and inciting a person between 17 and 18 under care; sexually touching them.

Kafataris, who “solemnly promises not to reoffend in any way” was arrested for breaching his bail on April 17 and was refused bail at Bankstown Court that day.

The court heard the witness at McDonald’s had initiated conversations with Kafataris over the past three years and he requested bail to “be at liberty to assist his legal counsel” ahead of the trial.

Crown prosecutor Georgina Namat told the court the prosecution case was overwhelming and said some of the evidence would show CCTV of Kafataris kissing a complainant with whom he made contact.

She told the court the accused had a “blatant disregard to court-imposed bail conditions” and posed an unacceptable risk of interfering with witnesses.

Ms Namat said the encounter with the witness at McDonald’s was not isolated because he had been in regular contact with her since August.

The court heard police collected phone records of phone calls Kafataris made to witnesses.

The woman he met at McDonald’s is a “tendency” witness with whom Kafataris had a consensual relationship and who is due to give evidence about his sexual interest in teenage girls.

However, his barrister Rory McCrudden said the witness made several phone calls to Kafataris and she wanted to ascertain what the two other witnesses said about him.

Mr McCrudden said the breach of bail was “without doubt a very serious issue” but he needed his client to be released on bail to communicate on a “rather intensive basis” with his legal representatives before the trial.

The court heard the defendant was “severely chastised by his arrest his incarceration”.

However, Judge Sophia Beckett said Kafataris was already under strict bail rules and he could communicate with his legal representatives in custody.

She refused bail. The matter will return to court for a readiness hearing on May 3.