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Offender Databases Donald Trotter

Donald Lyall Trotter

Alias

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Offences

A string of indecent assaults and other sex crimes against young boy in 1967, 1970, 1974, 1992 and 1994

Victims

.

Offender Affiliations

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Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1947

Current Location

Prison

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to preventive detention for at least 5 years in March 2003
First parole hearing April 2007
Has next hearing February 2011

Background
From the Dominion Post 05/03/2003
Stokes Valley paedophile Donald Lyall Trotter, who began offending against young boys 36 years ago when he was a police officer, feared he would die in prison if he was sentenced to preventive detention. But in the High Court at Wellington yesterday that did not deter Justice Hammond imposing preventive detention on Trotter, 56.

Trotter continues to deny indecently assaulting four boys under the age of 12, but last year a jury found him guilty. The jury heard he had touched the boys' bottoms and genitals. Trotter was previously sentenced to preventive detention on a related charge but the Court of Appeal reduced the sentence to seven years' jail.

Under yesterday's sentence, Trotter would serve at least five years but could be in jail indefinitely unless the parole board is satisfied he is safe to release. His lawyer, Letizea Ord, said he had heart problems for which he had been hospitalised twice since being in custody. He also suffered from depression. Trotter did not want to die in prison, she said. He had convictions stretching back to 1967. Other convictions were in 1970, 1974, and 1992.

After being released from his last prison term in 1994 he lived with his family in Stokes Valley. He had two rooms in the basement where neighbourhood children would play games on computers Trotter had set up. The Crown said Trotter had his own amusement parlour, and the judge agreed it was a "distinct magnet" for children up to the age of about 12.

Trotter's behaviour was discovered when an adult overheard one of the children describe Trotter as the "feeler". He faced trial on charges relating to 14 boys, and was eventually found guilty of indecently assaulting five of them. A jury could not agree on some charges at the first trial and the parents of six of the boys did not want their sons to have to give evidence a second time. Trotter was acquitted on three charges.

Justice Hammond said experts assessed Trotter as being at high risk of reoffending. Treatment was not likely to improve that risk till Trotter admitted his crimes.Society needed to be protected from Trotter and the best way to do that was with a sentence of preventive detention, Justice Hammond said. Trotter would not be released without "the most anxious scrutiny", and even then he would be supervised in the community. Justice Hammond ended an order suppressing Trotter's name. Trotter's activities had affected a lot of people and he should not continue to shelter behind the suppression order, he said.

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Corrections and Additional Information
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