Prank calls put woman’s life on edge

By Cam Lucadou-Wells

A Dandenong ice addict has pleaded guilty to repeatedly “prank-calling” his ex-employer’s wife and three random women late at night on a daily basis.
Peter Doumouliakas, 29, faced charges such as stalking his boss’s partner, harassing the other women as well as drug possession and drug-driving offences at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 20 March.
In a victim impact statement, a complainant described feeling sleep-deprived and “on-edge in my own home” due to the call-barrage.
In an attempt to trace the calls, she was instructed by Telstra to answer them all throughout the late night and early mornings over several months.
“Not knowing who or why (these calls were made) left me feeling violated,” she wrote.
She started thinking of how to protect her children if “something was to happen” and about the need to move house.
The court heard that the boss’s partner started receiving phone calls from a private number a week after the accused stopped work at the company.
The calls continued between June and October 2015. At its worst, the calls came on a nightly basis and up to 15 calls a night between 11pm and 3am.
On each occasion, the caller would stay on the line and say nothing. On two occasions, a male in the background made “pornographic sounds”.
Doumouliakas admitted making the traced calls from his and his mother’s phones, telling police they were “funny” “prank” calls.
“Just doing it to p*** them off,” he told police.
He told police he didn’t call his boss because “he probably wouldn’t get as agitated and angry and have felt what I felt”.
It was easier to punish the wife, he said.
Doumouliakas similarly repeatedly called three women who weren’t known to him nor associated with him at all in October 2015, December 2015 and February 2016.
He blamed his ice habit for the calls, which sometimes featured either a male’s sexual moaning and grunting or dead silence. Sometimes he said: “I’m coming for you” or “you’re dead”.
Doumouliakas was also charged after driving at high-speed to evade police in Oakleigh on 16 February.
At the time he had seven outstanding warrants, had failed to answer bail multiple times and told police he was using ice on a daily basis.
He was also charged with drug-driving on ice in May 2016, and possessing a deal bag of ‘rock salt’, found in his unregistered car with an ice pipe and blowtorch lighter after he was intercepted by police in November 2015.
Magistrate Julie O’Donnell said she required a psychiatric assessment of Doumouliakas prior to sentencing.
“You can’t expect me to sentence him today without some sort of evidence of what’s causing this behaviour with him.
“I have to know if he is released in the community he’s not a risk.”
Ms O’Donnell was concerned by Doumouliakas’s continued calls even after he was arrested, interviewed by police and expressed remorse.
“So many people that come before the court (have a drug issue) and we don’t see this sort of behaviour.”
Doumouliakas was remanded for sentencing at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 12 May, pending a psychological report.