Child Rapist To Be Sentenced For Sexual Assault Of Girl In Dance Studio Bathroom
AAP
2019-12-08T18:57:10+00:00
A Sydney child rapist who punched and bound his victim as he tormented her for 40 minutes in a dance studio bathroom is due to be sentenced.
Anthony Sampieri, 55, was already on parole for a violent rape when he attacked the seven-year-old girl in November 2018 after she walked past a Kogarah dance studio and into female bathrooms he'd been hiding in.
He later admitted making almost 100 offensive phone calls to women across Sydney in the months before raping the girl -- in breach of his parole.
Sampieri will be sentenced in the NSW District Court on Monday by Acting Judge Paul Conlon -- the same judge who sentenced him in 2013 for raping a woman in Wollongong.
Sampieri admitted to the rape, seven other offences during the attack and dozens of charges related to the phone calls.
Documents before the court state that after pushing the girl into a cubicle and locking the door, he punched the seven-year-old when she refused to touch his genitals.
After raping her once, Sampieri threatened her with a knife, tied a cord around her neck and dragged her to the male toilets.
"She felt like she could not breathe," agreed facts state.
Maintaining a grip of the cord, he then subjected her to further sexual acts before stuffing toilet paper into her mouth, binding her hands and leaving the bathroom.
During the attack, adults who'd begun searching for the girl walked into the bathroom, prompting Sampieri to threaten to "cut" the girl's neck if she made a noise.
The knife-wielding Sampieri returned to the bathroom as diesel mechanic Nicola 'Nick' Gilio found the girl, leading the two men to fight in the bathroom.
Though suffering several large cuts, Gilio managed to put the rapist in a headlock before dentist Jeffrey Stack ran in and knocked out Sampieri.
Gilio told the District Court in November that he still had flashbacks of the attack and had become pessimistic about the world due to Sampieri's actions.
The rapist later told police he'd been "so high" before the attack as a result of using methamphetamine earlier that day.
Police later uncovered the calls he'd been making to women from August 2018.
A chaplain, a 71-year-old community choir treasurer, an 18-year-old ice creamery worker and 20 real estate agents were among the 91 victims of Sampieri's sexually explicit cold-calls.
