A trans-identified pedophile in Scotland used an alias to gain entry into a domestic violence shelter housing vulnerable women and children, where he was allowed to stay for 71 days before being removed. Katie Dolatowski, 22, is a registered sex offender for crimes involving young girls, yet was permitted to reside at the Leeds Women’s Aid Refuge.
Dolatowski provided official documentation supporting a new identity, which he used to deceive staff at the women’s shelter. Dolatowski was accommodated in a section of the refuge which houses people who identify as transgender, but it had some shared resources and spaces with the main women’s area.
Dolatowski has a disturbing history of sex attacks on young girls in public facilities. In 2018, he was discovered secretly filming a 12-year-old girl in a women’s bathroom at an Asda supermarket in Fife, Scotland.
The child was using a restroom cubicle and in a state of partial undress when she spotted Dolatowski recording her by holding his phone over the stall. The girl cried out for help and ran away. The supermarket’s CCTV footage was used to identify Dolatowski, and upon further investigation, 12 seconds of film of the girl were found on his mobile phone and iPad.
The following month, Dolatowski targeted another young girl for sexual assault in the restroom of a Morrisons supermarket in Kircaldy, Fife. He grabbed a 10-year-old girl by the face and pushed her into a cubicle, ordering the child to remove her pants. During the assault, Dolatowski also threatened to murder the child’s mother in an attempt to frighten her into compliance. However, the young girl struck out in self-defense, landing some blows against Dolatowski, and was able to break free and run for her parents.
Despite his two attacks on children, Dolatowski was handed a three-year community order in lieu of a prison sentence. He was also banned from having contact with children, placed on the sex offenders registry, and ordered to complete community service.
Upon learning of Dolatowski’s disturbing history, management at Leeds Women’s Aid had him removed from the premises. Chief Executive Nik Peasgood told The Sun: “We are appalled that someone with such crimes could come to a women’s refuge using a different identity. We are aware a criminal using authenticated identification could access any housing provider’s services and we are not unique in being manipulated in this way.”
Farah Nazeer, also a chief executive at the shelter, added, “This situation is a priority for us, alongside supporting our federation of local domestic abuse services.”
A mother of three and a resident at the refuge told The Sun that the situation frightened her and made her fear for the safety of her children. “It’s horrific. As a victim of sexual abuse myself, the whole thing is triggering. I came here with my kids because I thought it was a safe place and to find out there was a pedophile living a few doors away for months is just horrendous.”
As previously reported by Reduxx, Dolatowski, who stands nearly 6’5, was ousted from a public housing estate on the night of October 19 after enraged neighbors became aware of his past crimes. A crowd gathered outside of the property, demanding his expulsion. A phone recording taken by a bystander shows a large number of police officers present, removing Dolatowski and unidentified others from the residence.
This is not the first instance of Dolatowski being granted access to a women’s shelter.
In February of 2019, the Courier revealed that Dolatowski, who was homeless at the time, had been housed in a hostel for female offenders on the basis of his self-declared gender identity. This was permitted despite the fact that Dolatowski did not have a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), a legal document that establishes a change to one’s name and birth sex on their identification.
One woman who was residing in the unit for homeless offenders told The Courier: “This is a women’s hostel and it’s all women who work here. I feel sick and can’t stop thinking about what he has done.”
An editorial decision was made in the news article to alter the woman’s wording by using the feminine pronoun “she” in place of “he.”
At the time, a spokeswoman for Women and Girls in Scotland noted that accomodating males in certain female-only spaces, such as prisons and crisis shelters, can be triggering for the vulnerable women residing there.
“Female offenders are very likely to have experienced male violence and/or abuse, and many suffer from conditions such as PTSD. As such, the presence of males in spaces where they are vulnerable could understandably be very distressing for these women, and for many the presence of a male sex offender will prove to be unbearable.”
She went on to denounce the lack of safeguarding measures, stating: “Katie Dolatowski has already taken advantage of access to female spaces to commit sexual assault. It is absolutely unacceptable that this person was being given the same opportunity again.”
Currently, violent male offenders incarcerated in Scotland can be placed in women’s prisons provided they are recognized as transgender.
In October, the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) confirmed that half of the current inmates who identify as transgender only began doing so following their convictions.
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