Police officer Anthony Craig Karakostas sentenced after assaulting teen in Warwick Farm
A police officer has been sentenced after he assaulted a teenage boy who had told his colleague, ‘your mum is a f***ing slut and I f***ed her last night’ in Sydney’s southwest.
Liverpool
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A police officer has been sentenced for assaulting a teenager in Sydney’s southwest last year after the boy told his colleague, “your mum is a f***ing slut and I f***ed her last night”.
Spring Farm man Anthony Craig Karakostas, 37, pleaded guilty to common assault and today appeared at Liverpool Local Court to learn his fate.
The father-of-two was supported by his wife as Magistrate David Degnan sentenced him to a 12-month conditional release order without a conviction.
Karakostas was on duty with the NSW Police Transport Command on January 4 last year when he and three other police officers noticed a teenager standing in a carpark at Warwick Farm train station just after 4pm, according to an agreed statement of facts.
“The police officers thought the victim was acting suspiciously and an officer called, ‘come here, we want to speak to you’,” the documents state.
The 16-year-old boy, not knowing why officers wanted to speak to him, ran away, sparking a foot pursuit that ended when another police officer from a different station came across the boy in a nearby street.
“That officer drew his firearm and placed the victim under arrest. The victim was placed down on the road and subsequently handcuffed with his hands behind his back,” the facts state.
Karakostas and about 10 other officers arrived at the scene to assist, with a number of police officers speaking to and searching the boy, who was verbally abusing them as he sat on the ground.
When one officer took hold of the boy’s mobile phone the teen said he would not give his password, to which the officer responded: “Relax, I am not going to contact your mother.”
The boy then replied, “your mum is a f***ing slut and I f***ed her last night.”
At this point, Karakostas lifted the boy up from the ground “by using his left hand to grab the victim’s hair” and his right hand to grab the victim’s shirt before placing that hand under the boy’s right arm to lift him, according to police facts.
“It is not an approved police technique to use force by pulling a person’s hair,” the documents state.
Karakostas then forcefully pushed the boy into the closed back door of a police vehicle, which caused the boy’s body and head to “impact” with the rear section of the car.
“The impact caused a noise which was heard by several police witnesses and recorded on police body worn video,” the facts state.
The boy fell to his knees and was pulled into the police car, at which point Karakostas said, “You are not f***ing any of my colleagues’ mums c***! Get up, get in there.”
The boy was found not to have done anything wrong and eventually released from police custody without charge.
Shortly after the incident, the boy reported the matter to police.
Mr Degnan said Karakostas, who the court heard had been suspended from the NSW Police Force with pay since June, had an obligation to protect the vulnerable.
“You’ve brought shame upon yourself. You’ve brought shame upon police generally,” he said.
The court today heard Mr Karakostas’s mother was suffering from lung cancer at the time of the incident and it was on his mind.
Karakostas’s barrister Michael Gallagher said it was a “distressing” time for the police officer and he subsequently “lost control” in an act that was “totally out of his character”.
“He is sorry for what did occur,” he said.
In sentencing, Mr Degnan said he was “not ignorant” of factors that caused Mr Karakostas stress, but issued a stern warning to “put those things behind you and meet your oath to protect the community” once he donned the police uniform.