‘Evil’ troll who posed as girl missing since 1981 spared jail term

AN “EVIL and wicked” troll who posed online as missing toddler Katrice Lee has avoided prison.

Wirral Magistrates Court heard Heidi Robinson (40) set up a Facebook profile under the name of Katrice, who vanished on her second birthday on November 28, 1981, on the outskirts of Paderborn in Germany, near the British military base where her father Richard Lee was stationed.

At the sentencing yesterday District Judge Nicholas Sanders said it was clear Robinson had been suffering from a mental illness when she committed the act of “unimaginable cruelty”.

He gave her an 18-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, with a mental health treatment requirement for 12 months and ordered her to carry out rehabilitation activity for 40 days.

Speaking outside court, Mr Lee said he thought Robinson had “got away very lightly” and called her an “evil and wicked troll”.

At the sentencing hearing the court heard Robinson sent a Facebook friend request in August last year to Katrice’s sister Natasha Walker.

Andrew Downie, prosecuting, said Mrs Walker messaged the profile, which included photos of Katrice and her family, and asked for it to be removed before later contacting military police, who are investigating Katrice’s disappearance.

Robinson, of East Way in Moreton, gave a DNA sample to police which confirmed she was not Katrice, the court heard.

Mr Downie said: “Despite that result and Natasha, on a number of occasions, asking Heidi Robinson to take the profile down, the defendant continued to message Natasha up to November 3, 2018.”

Mrs Walker said she “felt sick to the pit of my stomach” when she saw the profile.

Ember-Jade Wong, defending, said: “She had no understanding as to what her offending was, given her condition at the time, believing up until very recently, when she became fitter, that she was Katrice Lee.”

Robinson pleaded guilty earlier this month to using a public communications network to send a message that was grossly offensive, indecent or menacing on November 3 last year.

She was ordered to pay £500 compensation to Mrs Walker, given a restraining order to stop her contacting the Lee family and issued with a night curfew.