A convicted sex offender, who is a trans woman, will be held in a male prison for 78 days starting Thursday after violating bail conditions following her release from prison for assaulting a fellow inmate at Polmont Young Offenders Institute in 2021.
Katie Dolatowski, 22, skipped her bail in Grangemouth, Stirlingshire, twice within a week, saying she was suffering from a mental health crisis and did not feel safe there, Falkirk Sheriff Court heard. She had contacted the Scottish Ambulance Service on April 13 to say she had a ‘mental health crisis’.
Sheriff Craig Harris said that the breach “raised some concerns about her ability to follow court orders” and sentenced Dolatowski to 78 prison terms, while serving a structured deferred sentence, and called for the order to be reviewed on July 20 this year.
Last year, Dolatowski was sent to Cornton Vale, a women’s prison in Stirling, for breaching a restriction of liberty order issued for violating the terms of a sexual offenses prevention order issued after she served a 10-year sentence. girl sexually assaulted in a supermarket bathroom in Fife in March 2018.
Nicholas Steur said in January that the decision to send Dolatowski to a Cornton Vale was an operational decision for the Prison Service. Dolatowski has expressed support for the former prime minister and her gender reforms that make it easier for Scots to change their legal gender.
Katie Dolatowski leaves Falkirk Sheriff Court escorted by guards after pleading guilty to assaulting a fellow prisoner at Polmont Prison, Stirlingshire. The punishment was postponed.
Nicola Sturgeon said the decision to send Dolatowski to a women’s prison was a decision of the prison service
Dolatowski received a suspended sentence for assaulting a fellow inmate at Polmont Prison in 2021 and was released on bail, with conditions including staying on bail overnight.
Prosecutor Bernadette Cuthbertson said police visited her address around 7 p.m. on April 7, knocked on the door and looked through the windows.
When she failed to appear, they reported her for violating a bail condition.
She later showed up at a hospital in Aberdeen and said she was unwell.
Dolatowski was subsequently arrested on April 8 for the offense. She was later released on bail on April 12.
The next day, she was again found to have left her bail address during curfew.
Falkirk Sheriff Court heard that Dolatowski called an ambulance and gave her location as Westfield Roundabout, Falkirk, near Falkirk’s football stadium and not far from the M9 motorway, saying she had a ‘mental health crisis’.
Ms Cuthbertson said: ‘At 5:10am police tracked her down to be at the scene, bail conditions were in place. Paramedics were present, examined her and were unconcerned. She was then arrested, warned and charged.’
Dolatowski pleaded guilty to violating bail, appearing via video link on Thursday.
Defense attorney Georgia Marshall said she “didn’t understand” how the curfew protected the public from Dolatowski.
“She has been punished by setting a curfew to stay in a place where she feels unsafe,” she said. “Maybe other conditions would have been better, rather than keeping her in at night.”
Sheriff Craig Harris, who imposed the sentence, told Dolatowski, “While an explanation has been given for the bail violations, if you wanted to change your address you could have made a request to the court to do so. Your violations of court orders require imprisonment as punishment.”
Katie Dolatowski leaves Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court. Dolatowski, originally from Kirkcaldy, Fife, sexually assaulted a child in a nearby supermarket bathroom in March 2018
Around 60 protesters gathered outside Cornton Vale to demonstrate against the transfer of Dolatowski to the women’s prison at Stirling
Dolatowski was sent to Cornton Vale near Stirling last year after he breached a restraining order issued for breaching the terms of a sexual offenses prevention order after assaulting a 10-year-old girl in 2018 in a toilet of a supermarket.
A month earlier, she had been caught filming a 12-year-old girl using the bathroom in another nearby supermarket.
Nicola Sturgeon said the decision to send Dolatowski to a women’s prison in Cornton Vale was an operational decision for the prison service.
She was asked why she intervened in the Isla Bryson case, but not for Dolatowski, saying, “The concern that has arisen because of the focus I think is on the general public needs to be clarified.”
Harry Potter author JK Rowling weighed in on the matter in January, saying Sturgeon should release Dolatowski from Cornton Vale prison.
Rowling tweeted, “So in Nicola Sturgeon’s Scotland, trans women ARE NOT women if they are convicted of double rapists, like Adam ‘Isla Bryson’ Graham.
But trans woman and pedophile Katie Dolatowski, who covertly filmed a 12-year-old and attempted to rape a 10-year-old, committed both crimes in public women’s restrooms, IS a woman and is still in the women’s prison from which Adam Graham is to be removed .
According to YouGov polls, 59% of Britons say that if a transgender woman who has not had full gender reassignment surgery is convicted of rape or sexual assault, she should be sent to a men’s prison.
38% believe that a trans woman who has been convicted of rape or sexual assault and who has undergone surgery should be placed in a women’s prison.
For non-violent and non-sexual crimes, Britons are more in favor of housing transgender people in a prison that matches their gender identity.
54% of respondents believe that a trans woman who has undergone full gender reassignment surgery should be placed in a women’s prison.
24% believe that a transgender woman who has not had surgery should be placed in a women’s prison if convicted of a non-violent crime – compared to 15% support in the case of a violent crime.
In all scenarios, between a quarter and a third of people admitted that they did not know the most appropriate answer.
