Sex offender and murderer Tony Robertson

The family of raped and murdered Blesilda Gotingco may now start to grieve in peace now that the name of her killer has finally been released.

Blesilda Gotingco, ran over, raped and murdered on her way home from work.

After many months of name suppression orders, paedophile and convicted murderer Tony Robertson has been named as her killer.

Name suppression has lapsed this afternoon for Tony Douglas Roberston, after being found guilty of Ms Gotingco’s murder in May.

Throughout the trial, Robertson was particularly concerned about what jurors knew of his criminal history, which was suppressed.

Justice Timothy Brewer instructed jurors not to research Robertson on the internet as they sat through the four-week trial. Today that history – of which the Gotingco family is well aware – can finally be exposed…

Readers of this blog already knew his name, as did we. We all knew his history and the horrific crimes he’d committed. We knew he was released from prison and was on supervision when he killed Blessinda. We knew he was wearing a monitoring device on his ankle when he did it. What we don’t know is why he moved on from assaulting children, and why his supposed Department of Corrections ‘supervision’ was so woefully poor. Blesilda’s death was “a national disgrace and enitrely avoidable”

Tony Robertson , was 18 when he was jailed for sex offending that took place in Tauranga in December 2005 and since then he’d been on an extended 10 year supervision order for abducting and molesting a five year old girl in the town.

Robertson’s criminal history started in 2003 when he was 16-years-old.

By the time he was 18 he had convictions for assault, aggravated robbery, possession of an offensive weapon, wilful damage, threatening to kill, burglary, receiving, breaching conditions of supervision and breaching a community work order…

On December 14 Robertson accosted a 12-year-old Welcome Bay boy walking home from school, and took his cellphone. Soon after he approached three children, aged six, seven and eight and invited them to enter his car, telling them their mother was at a nearby service station and that she had a present for them. One of the children ran up to his mother nearby and when she approached Robertson he drove off.

The next morning, he approached a five-year-old girl and her seven year-old brother near Maungatapu School.

He invited the girl into his car, telling her that her mother was at a nearby beach and had a present for her. The girl got into his car and Robertson pretended to speak to the girl’s mother by cellphone. He told her brother not to get into the car and drove off.

The brother promptly alerted his teacher, who in turn alerted the police. An extensive search was mounted and at 9.45am Robertson was found with the girl a short distance out of Tauranga.

According to court documents, the child was on the front seat, which had been reclined. She was upset and crying. In a later interview, the girl stated that Robertson had asked to photograph her in her boxer shorts, which were later found in the back of the car. He had asked her to roll on her stomach, touched her underwear and bottom, licked her thigh, and tried to kiss her face. She pushed him away and protested.

Robertson was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to seven years and six months’ jail in relation to the abduction, a sentence of six months’ imprisonment in respect of the robbery conviction, and two years and six months’ jail on each of the convictions for attempted kidnapping, and a sentence of two years’ imprisonment on each of the three convictions for doing an indecent act on a child… read on

Our thoughts today are with Mrs Gotingco’s family and friends. If any sense is to come of her death, and is justice is to be properly served, the Department of Corrections should be held to account for its failure to protect the public from Tony Robertson.

Additionally, a sex offenders register must be established in New Zealand.