A sex pest who made repeated “disgusting” calls to women at a Foxtel call centre has received a three-year community corrections order.
Francesco Colangelo, 47, phoned the call centre and bombarded female call operators with “unwanted, disgusting calls” over a three-week period in 2020.
He pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to harass and 11 other driving-related offences.
Magistrate Abigail Burchill told the Broadmeadows Magistrates Court it was not the first time Colangelo had harassed women for his own gratification, after earlier similar offending in 2017.
“It is shocking and relevant that you’re a repeat offender forxjmtzyw using a phone like this,” she told him on Thursday.
“A cowardly act, hiding behind a phone to dish out harm.”
Ms Burchill said Colangelo focused on “soft targets” just doing their job.
“They shouldn’t have to be exposed to the violation you inflicted to them in those telephone calls,” she said.
“What you said and what you did in those calls undoubtedly would have distressed and traumatised those women and left them with ongoing anxiety that a person who rings for help is going to behave like you did.
“It is sexually predatory behaviour that in these times there could be no stronger message there’s no place for it, no place for doing disgusting things like that.”’
His charges included multiple examples of driving while suspended or disqualified, wherein he drove like a “madman” on the wrong side of the road in heavy traffic.
It was lucky no one was injured or killed, Ms Burchill said.
Some of the driving happened on the days of his court appearances.
“The further driving offending and sex pest calls you did when you knew you were in all sorts of trouble and you couldn’t control yourself and keep out of trouble at that critical time,” the magistrate said.
“It significantly takes away from any sentencing reduction you can get for chances of rehabilitation.”
A psychological report said Colangelo, who has bipolar disorder, was plagued by loneliness and isolation following the end of a relationship.
His defence lawyer requested he receive a “therapeutic” sentence, but Ms Burchill said the courts had given him plenty of chances, however he was resistant to treatment and did not take his medication.
“When he was at a critical time to show himself at his best he hasn’t done it,” she said.
“He’s a man who has no respect. He doesn’t care about the position it puts his family in, he’s a man that doesn’t have much care at all.”
Colangelo was given a three year community corrections order – essentially a jail term in the community – with psychiatric treatment.
The magistrate said she would’ve jailed him if not for his guilty pleas, the fact he was a primary caregiver to his children and the delay in hearing his case.
