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A mechanic who was stabbed while rescuing a young girl from a sadistic sexual predator in the toilets of a Sydney dance studio will receive an international bravery award for his heroism.
Nicola ‘Nick’ Gilio will be bestowed with the Stanhope Gold Medal at NSW Parliament House on Friday, after being selected by the UK-based Royal Humane Society.
It is a prize awarded to just one person each year to honour the bravest act in the Commonwealth. He will join illustrious company when presented with the gong by NSW Governor Margaret Beazley.
Last year’s recipients were British cave divers Richard Stanton and John Volanthen, who played key roles in the famous Tham Luang cave rescue of 2018.
Jeffrey Stack, the dance teacher who also came to the girl’s aid, will receive a bronze bravery medal from the Royal Humane Society of NSW for his role in the dramatic citizens’ arrest of Anthony Peter Sampieri.
Mr Gilio confronted Sampieri moments after he had abducted and raped the child who had been missing from her dance class in Kogarah in November 2018.
Sampieri, an ice addict, told a court he wandered into the studio while looking for a place to “shoot up” and pulled the girl into the men’s toilets.
He filmed parts of the horrific 40-minute ordeal during which he punched, sexually abused and choked the helpless seven-year-old in a cubicle.
Mr Gilio, one of several worried parents searching for the girl, found her tied up and grabbed her attacker as he ran for the exit.
“Is this what you do?” Mr Gilio said as he rammed Sampieri’s head into the wall.
As they tussled Sampieri pulled out a knife and lunged at Mr Gilio, slashing his stomach, wrist and inflicting a 14cm wound to the back of his neck.
Despite his injuries the mechanic managed to put Sampieri in a headlock before dance teacher Mr Stack burst into the room and punched the assailant out cold.
Mr Stack, who also works a dentist, will receive the bronze Galleghan Award for bravery.
Sampieri, now 57, was in 2020 jailed for life after he pleaded guilty to 10 charges including three counts of sexual intercourse with a child.
He became the first man in NSW to be sentenced to life behind bars without parole.
Judge Paul Conlon said the incident was “every parent‘s worst nightmare” and singled out the traumatised Mr Gilio for his bravery.
“To you sir, I would say this: the victim, her family, everyone at the dance school and indeed the whole community are indebted to you for the courage you displayed in the face of a person wielding a knife and in successfully subduing and detaining the offender,” the judge said.
Outside court the father-of-four said it was an “honour to have … freed [the victim] from the hands of evil.”
Sampieri has launched an appeal against his sentence in the Supreme Court.
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