Cops Angelo Dellosa and James Delinicolis sentenced in relation to threesome with schoolgirl

Two cops have been sentenced for ‘using their privileged position to pick up women’ after they had sex with a schoolgirl they met while on duty.

Two Sydney police officers who had a penchant for trawling the areas they worked for sexual conquests, resulting in them having a threesome with a teenage schoolgirl, have avoided jail time for “using their privileged position to pick up women”.

Long-time friends Angelo Dellosa, 31, and James Delinicolis, 30, were sentenced in the Downing Centre District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to one count of misconduct in public office.

The pair, linked to the NSW Police Transport Command at Bankstown in Sydney’s southwest, both acknowledged they had embarrassed the police force with their actions after having a consensual threesome with the 17-year-old schoolgirl referred to by the pseudonym “Violet” – whom Delinicolis “picked up” while on duty.

James Delinicolis tried to pick up women while on duty. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

The men were warned by colleagues not to engage with “Violet”, and they told her not to tell anyone about their sexual interaction because “we are police officers and we might lose our jobs”.

Acting Judge Peter Berman said it was “not an isolated thing for the offenders to try and pick up women for sexual relationships whilst they were on duty”.

He said just as people lose respect for politicians who favour their own interests over that of their electorate, so is the “reputation of police officers … damaged by the actions of these two offenders”.

“(They) used their privileged positions to pick up women, especially a 17-year-old schoolgirl, for sexual purposes, even despite warnings from their colleagues,” he said.

“These offenders were seen by ‘Violet’ and other police officers … to have little regard for the trusted positions they held. Nor could it be suggested that they were unaware that what they were doing was wrong,” Acting Judge Berman added.

Angelo Dellosa would go by the pseudonym ‘Allen’. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

“The punishment ... will act as a continuing reminder to them of just how wrong it was for them to treat the privileged position of a police officer as being an opportunity to pick up a schoolgirl so they could have sex with her.”

Between May 2019 to May 2020, Dellosa and Delinicolis frequently spoke to women and handed out their phone numbers while on duty, attempting to score a sexual relationship, the court heard on Friday.

They used what they called a “bat phone” to communicate with women while on duty.

Delinicolis would go by the name of “Dimitri” and Dellosa took the pseudonym “Allen”.

Delinicolis would keep a pile of post-it notes with his number on it to give out to women he spotted while on duty, and he gave out probably a few a week.

Dellosa too, on nine occasions over the 12 months, approached women while working.

Acting Judge Berman said he would take into account the damage caused to the pair by initially being charged with having non-consensual sex with the schoolgirl before the charges were later withdrawn.

Angelo Franco Dellosa was given a community corrections order and community service for his misconduct. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Adam Yip

The charges hung over their heads for 12 months and garnered plenty of media attention, with headlines incorrectly saying they had raped the teen, the court was told.

During a 22-day Silverwater prison stint, both men’s lives were threatened, Delinicolis was compared to a “Catholic priest” and Dellosa was called a “child rapist” by other inmates.

A statement of agreed facts summarised in court lay out how the encounter with the 17-year-old girl inside a southwestern Sydney hotel room in August last year unfolded.

One day in March 2020, Delinicolis – wearing his uniform – started up a conversation with a girl he saw standing outside a train station in her school uniform while in a patrol van with three other officers.

He asked what her name was, if she was single and how old she was.

She told him she was 18 even though she was 17 at the time, and he handed her a piece of paper with the name “Dimitri” and his phone number on it.

“She’s old enough” Delinicolis replied when some in the van congratulated him.

She messaged him to say “hey” and they exchanged sexual messages – Delinicolis offering to send pictures of his penis and the girl returning a nude photograph.

Later that night another officer warned the pair about engaging with a schoolgirl.

James Delinicolis and Angelo Dellosa would use a ‘bat phone’ to communicate with women while on duty. Picture: Facebook

“Are you guys seriously talking about a schoolgirl?” he said and referred to an incident where an NRL player was stood down for taking a schoolgirl back to their team hotel.

Delinicolis replied: “We are not doing anything wrong.”

On August 13, Delinicolis arranged to pick up the schoolgirl and take her to a hotel in Cabramatta.

He asked if she wanted to have a threesome, and she consented to “one at a time”.

It is agreed by the parties that all sexual contact inside the hotel room between the group was consensual.

Delinicolis had sex with the 17-year-old at the hotel before Dellosa arrived.

Delinicolis watched on as the pair had sex, and when they finished, he began having sex with her again.

Dellosa began filming it on his mobile phone, and the clips were later found on a Samsung phone.

The girl communicated with the men for a while afterwards before she ceased speaking with them.

The girl told her boyfriend and some school friends what had happened before an anonymous complaint was made to police on June 26.

Delinicolis was arrested when he arrived at work and told officers: “She said she was 18.”

Both men were suspended from the police force without pay.

Crown prosecutor Karl Prince previously told the court that it was not about whether the actions were “moral” or whether the men had been unfaithful to their wives in having sex with “Violet” but “the abuse of his position as a police officer”.

“His conduct has fallen so short of what was expected of him that it merits a charge and criminal punishment,” he said at a sentencing hearing last week.

Delinicolis, whose offending was more serious because he initiated contact with the girl, the court heard, was sentenced to a two-year intensive corrections order and 400 hours of community service.

An intensive corrections order is considered a prison term served out in the community.

Dellosa was sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order and 300 hours of community service.