Transgender paedophile duped staff at domestic violence refuge – for women and kids – into letting her stay for 71 days
A TRANSGENDER paedophile duped staff into letting her stay for 71 days at a domestic violence refuge for vulnerable women and children.
Katie Dolatowski, 22, used an alias to hide her crimes and get into the Leeds Women’s Aid refuge, which is visited regularly by Spice Girl and domestic abuse campaigner Mel B.
Her disturbing past came to light only ten weeks later in September when managers are understood immediately to have called police.
The predator — who sexually assaulted a girl of ten in a supermarket toilet and secretly filmed another child — was taken into custody.
One refuge guest, a mum-of-three, told The Sun: “It’s horrific.
“As a victim of sexual abuse myself, the whole thing is triggering.
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“I came here with my kids because I thought it was a safe place and to find out there was a paedophile living a few doors away for months is just horrendous.
“I saw her several times hanging around where the prams are parked, she is tall and skinny with long brown hair and always wore a blue surgical mask.
“The whole thing makes my skin crawl.”
Dolatowski’s offending dates back to the supermarket incidents in Scotland in 2018 and she has been in court several times since.
But she was said to have official documents supporting the alias she used to deceive staff at the refuge in Leeds.
It is not known what Dolatowski told managers to convince them she was a victim of abuse.
She stayed in the refuge’s separate accommodation for trans survivors. There is a shared garden.
Nik Peasgood, chief executive of Leeds Women’s Aid, said of the breach: “We are appalled that someone with such crimes could come to a women’s refuge using a different identity.
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“We are aware that 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, chief executive at Women’s Aid, added: “This situation is a priority for us, alongside supporting our federation of local domestic abuse services.”
She added that the charity was exploring additional security mechanisms for the national federation in light of the incident.
Dolatowski was 18 when she targeted the girl of ten in the toilets of a Morrison in Kircaldy, Fife.
She ordered the child to remove her trousers and threatened to stab her — but the girl punched her and fled.
It came a month after Dolatowski was caught secretly filming a 12-year-old girl on the toilet in an Asda in Dunfermline.
She avoided jail but there was anger at the time when it emerged she was placed in a woman-only hostel while self-identifying as a woman.
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Her case is likely to reignite the debate around who can use women-only spaces such as refuges.
It also brings into focus Scotland’s controversial proposals to make gender self-identity easier.