Women reveal details of alleged dance hall child sex attacker’s rampage

Victims of alleged dance hall child molester Anthony Sampieri have detailed his sexual rampage as allegations prompt calls for a review into parole.

Police investigate the alleged child sex assault and stabbing at St George Dance Studio in Kogarah last week. Picture Damian Hoffman

EXCLUSIVE

Two female victims of alleged dance hall child molester Anthony Sampieri have revealed disturbing new details of him stalking them during an escalating ice-fuelled sexual rampage.

Speaking exclusively with news.com.au, the women disclosed how Sampieri terrified them with personal phone calls suggesting disgusting sex acts.

Calling himself “Ron”, Sampieri is believed to have followed at least one of them home and, fearing that he was a sex pervert whose behaviour was escalating, she called police.

In one phone call, Sampieri asked a woman: “Can I stick my tongue in your *******?”

Wollongong officers told them they had 71 pages of phone records of “Ron” calling real estate agents, radio station and newspaper employees over several days in October 2012.

Court documents given by Wollongong police to Kogarah detectives investigating the dance hall attack reveal phone calls made that month. But the women, who were advertising salespersons, said officers told them they didn’t have the budget to charge Sampieri.

The women said police advised them to take alternative routes home and not walk alone into the office carpark.

Two weeks after Sampieri’s first filthy phone call, he raped a 60-year-old woman at knifepoint.

Police found a rape kit and newspaper clippings with the phone call victims’ photos in his bedroom, according to court documents.

Police investigate the stabbing after a young girl was allegedly sexually assaulted in the toilet at St George Dance Centre in Kogarah. Picture: Damian Hoffman

Police help stabbing victim Nick Gilio outside the Kogarah dance hall after he went to a girl’s aid. Picture: Nine News

The women have decided to speak out after Sampieri allegedly sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl in the toilet of a Kogarah dance studio last week.

The girl was allegedly alone for 30 minutes with the naked 54-year-old convicted sex offender before she was rescued by another girl’s parent, Nick Gilio. Sampieri then allegedly stabbed the parent who found the girl.

The alleged attack occurred just a year after he was released from prison early on parole.

No charges have yet been laid against Sampieri, who is being treated in hospital for liver cancer following last week’s alleged assault.

NSW Police announced today they would conduct an internal investigation into complaints of lewd phone calls allegedly made by Sampieri to a woman a month before the dance hall incident.

Police will investigate why officers allegedly did not alert Sampieri’s parole supervisors of the alleged breach of his parole conditions.

In a statement to the media Police Minister Troy Grant promised “swift action” on these issues.

“Victims should be able to have confidence that when they contact police their concerns will be taken seriously. The initial indications are that police could have done more, and if that is the case, I’ll expect swift action to be taken,” he said.

“The community rightly expects police to operate to the highest standards, and when that standard isn’t met their actions should be scrutinised.”

NSW Corrections Minister David Elliott on Wednesday said he was “horrified” that the man had been granted parole and has requested an urgent briefing. He also took aim at the state’s parole board.

“The mere fact that I have taken parole board decisions to the Supreme Court in the past is good evidence to suggest that I’m not comfortable with a lot of parole board decisions,” he told reporters.

NSW Opposition Leader Michael Daley called for a system-wide review of parole and more resources for police. “The police do an amazing job keeping tabs on some of the most dangerous offenders in our society but they cannot do it with one hand tied behind their backs,” he said in a statement.

Sampieri was never charged with the sexually threatening phone calls made in October 2012 to at least four women in the Wollongong and southern NSW Coast areas.

However, the women have described in detail to news.com.au Sampieri’s terrifying calls before he lured the 60-year-old to his Fairy Meadow house under the premise of buying second-hand $5 tables.

Young girls could be seen crying and shaking in the lit windows of the dance hall as blood curdling screams rang out. Picture: John Grainger

Elliotts Road, Fairy Meadow where Anthony Sampieri lured a woman to his house and raped her in 2012.

Fingerprint dust in the bathroom inside of a Kogarah dance studio, where the young girl was rescued from an alleged sexual assault.

Sampieri told the woman “now we’re going to have some fun”, produced a 25cm knife and raped her several times before she managed to escape, with him pursuing her outside, according to court proceedings.

Just 15 days earlier, he made his first obscene phone call to the advertising saleswoman using the name “Ron”.

“It started on October 7, 2012,” she told news.com.au. “I received a phone call while I was driving at night. It was a dirty phone call.

“When I got to work the next day and told (my colleagues) another one had got a phone call, but it was worse than mine.

“Then someone else got a call too, and that was worse. He was escalating.

“Then he rang (another saleswoman aged 23) at her grandmother’s house.

“He must have followed her home and then found out the number.

“When he was told (the 23-year-old) wasn’t home, he did a dirty phone call with the grandmother.”

The victims of the phone calls were later informed by NSW Police that Anthony Peter Sampieri was behind the calls under the name of “Ron”.

Another woman spoke to news.com.au about the moment she took a call from Sampieri in 2012.

She was working as a journalist at a newspaper in NSW and often working late at night. She said her photograph featured alongside with her name on articles she wrote.

The call was brief but Sampieri was offensive and the language graphic as he described the lewd sex act he would like to perform on her.

A stab wound on his torso visible, Nick Gilio in his street today after being released from hospital with a stab wound. Picture: Jenny Evans

Mr Gilio has been described as a ‘hero’.

Mr Gilio collapsed on the footpath.

The woman, who was 40 at the time, said he only called once and she hung up on him immediately.

“It was definitely unnerving. I was worried he had been watching me,” she said.

The advertising salespersons also made statements to Wollongong police.

“We were worried he might escalate and someone might get hurt,” the salesperson said.

“Constable (name withheld) said he didn’t think the guy was a threat.

“They couldn’t do anything because they didn’t have the budget.

“Then he did the rape and police found the newspaper clippings with our photos with duct tape and cable ties in his bedroom.”

The women were among several aged 23 to 83 whose names, numbers and photographs were found among newspaper clippings at Sampieri’s home, according to court documents.

Police also found the rape kit including a roll of wire, a nylon rope under his pillow and pornographic DVDs and magazines.

Sampieri pleaded guilty to four charges including aggravated sexual assault for raping the 60-year-old woman who he lured to his house on the pretence of selling her furniture.

A man emerges under a sheet from the Kogarah dance hall following the alleged assault on the young girl.

Sampieri’s behaviour towards women whose names and contact details he had found in newspapers was described in court as a “sex binge” in which he suggested explicit sexual fantasies.

For the 2012 rape, Sampieri was charged with aggravated sexual assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of indecent assault.

At his trial, it was revealed Sampieri was high on prescription drugs and alcohol when he assaulted his 60-year-old victim.

The court heard that Sampieri had struggled with drug, alcohol and mental health issues over a lengthy period.

Judge Paul Conlon said the woman had undergone a “terrifying and degrading experience”, but that Sampieri had shown remorse for his actions.

Sampieri spent less than five years behind bars before he was released on parole in September last year.

His maximum sentence is not due to expire until October 21 next year.

The advertising saleswoman who was targeted by Sampieri with a lewd phone call said she felt terrible that he had been free to rape a woman two weeks after she reported the call.

She also felt dreadful for the alleged seven-year-old victim and the man who was stabbed, Mr Gilio.

“It is irrational but I can’t help but feel a little bit of guilt,” she said. “Could I have done more?”

NSW Police said the seven-year-old girl found at the Kogarah dance hall was “faring well” and her “very brave” family “want to get on with their lives and back to normal”.

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