The New South Wales police watchdog says it will “closely oversee” an internal police investigation into a series of blunders that led to the alleged sexual assault of a seven-year-old girl by a convicted rapist in Sydney last week.
Police confirmed on Friday that a senior constable from the St George area has been suspended with pay following the launch of an internal investigation into the handling of a complaint made against 54-year-old Anthony Sampieri.
Sampieri, who was on parole after being jailed for raping a 60-year-old woman at knifepoint in his Illawarra home in 2012, is accused of sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl at a Kogarah dance studio last week.
This week deputy commissioner Jeff Loy said police had been looking into “harassing phone calls” made to women by Sampieri in the weeks before it is alleged he sexually assaulted the child.
On Thursday police admitted to failings in the case after it was revealed a complaint by a woman about an offensive call from Sampieri in late October was not passed on to the parole board.
The case is now the subject of an internal police investigation.
But in a strongly worded statement on Friday the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission said it planned to closely watch the investigation to make sure it was conducted in a “competent, thorough and objective manner”.
In the statement, a spokeswoman for the police watchdog described the phone calls allegedly made by Sampieri in the lead up to the attack as “troubling”.
“Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) will closely oversee the police investigation of the officer who received information regarding troubling phone calls made to a woman by Anthony Sampieri in October 2018,” the statement read.
“In accordance with its statutory obligations under Part 7 of the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission Act 2016, the LECC will consider both the investigation’s adequacy and proposed outcome.
“The LECC will oversee the NSW police force’s investigation of this matter to provide assurance to the public that the investigation is conducted in a competent, thorough and objective manner.”
The NSW police have faced increasing criticism over the handling of Sampieri’s case.
NSW police minister Troy Grant said this week that it appeared police “could have done more”.
“Victims should be able to have confidence that when they contact police their concerns will be taken seriously,” he said.
“The initial indications are that police could have done more, and if that is the case, I’ll expect swift action to be taken.”
On Wednesday the NSW corrections minister David Elliott told NSW Parliament he was “horrified” that Sampieri had been granted parole.
“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.
