A sex offender who attracted public protest after being locked up in a Scottish all-women’s prison has been dealt with for battering a male inmate during a previous period of incarceration.
Katie Dolatowski was sent to Cornton Vale Prison last year after breaching a restriction of liberty order imposed for breaking the terms of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order handed down after sexually assaulting a 10-year-old in a Fife supermarket.
Dolatowski, 22, appeared again from custody on Monday, having been arrested over the weekend for missing a court date.
The serial offender was supposed to appear at Falkirk Sheriff Court last week to be sentenced for assaulting another inmate in January 2021, while on a male wing at Polmont Young Offenders Institution.
Dolatowski was in the junior prison for another physical assault, committed in Glasgow while staying in temporary accommodation there.
Prison assault
Solicitor Ruairidh Hood, defending, said: “She identifies as a female after being born as a male.
“At the time of the incident in 2021 she had been sent to a male prison, where she was subject to some abuse and struggled to fit in within the community within the prison.
“As a result, she took matters into her own hands.
“She understands now, that there were better ways to go about this.”
The court was told the incident occurred while inmates were collecting lunch.
Rachel Hill, prosecuting, said the inmate assaulted, 20-year-old Peter Patterson, was at the hotplate getting his meal when he “felt as though he had been pushed”.
He was then “repeatedly punched about the head” by Dolatowski.
Miss Hill said witnesses saw Dolatowski “holding Mr Patterson over a table and continually punching him to the back of his head”.
Prison officers brought the matter to an end.
Miss Hill said: “She stated that Patterson had made certain comments towards her the previous evening.”
Dolatowski was placed on report and received punishments within the prison including seven days’ loss of recreation and loss of earnings.
‘Grave concerns’
Dolatowski, whose last address was given on court papers as Dunfermline, pled guilty to assaulting Mr Patterson by punching him repeatedly on the head and body.
Sheriff Alison Michie imposed a structured deferred sentence.
According to the Scottish Government, structured deferred sentences should be “relatively short periods of focused intervention with the specific objectives of meeting an individual’s assessed criminogenic and non-criminogenic needs and building their motivation and capacity for positive change”.
The sheriff said according to a social background report, there were “grave concerns” about Dolatowski’s ability to comply with any statutory supervision.
But she said: “The options are extremely limited and she appears with a very lengthy record but this particular offence occurred nearly three years ago now.”
She ordered Dolatowski to appear in court again for a review hearing on March 16 and warned: “If you are failing to comply, it may be that you will be returned to custody.
“Your record certainly would merit that.”
Prison protest and past crimes
The court was told earlier Dolatowski had placed on a restriction of liberty order in October last year for breaching a sex offender notification requirement to notify authorities of any new addresses after fleeing Kirkcaldy after being “targeted”.
Four months imprisonment was imposed at the start of November.
Solicitor Kelly Howe, who appeared for Dolatowski in November, said her client’s “identity has now been recognised by the prison service to the extent that she is serving her current sentence in Cornton Vale“.
That attracted a protest outside Scotland’s only female-only prison in November.
In March 2018, Dolatowski attacked a 10-year-old girl in the toilet of Morrisons in Kirkcaldy.
The terrified youngster was grabbed by the face, shoved into the cubicle, and ordered to remove her trousers.
The attack came a month after Dolatowski had filmed a 12-year-old girl on the toilet in another supermarket in the Fife town.
For the sex offences, Dolatowski was placed on a three-year community payback order and banned from having contact with children.
Outrage followed in Fife when it was discovered the predator had been placed in a woman-only hostel.
It emerged last year Dolatowski conned a hostel in Leeds.
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