Top detective had 'serious concerns'

Retired Detective Sergeant Pete Blackwell had concerns in March last year after Robertson was charged with breaching his parole conditions, just three months after being freed from prison.

A senior Western Bay police officer took the unusual step of warning the public Tony Robertson would strike again.

Last year, a senior Tauranga detective told the Bay of Plenty Times he had "very, very serious concerns" about the convicted paedophile re-offending less than three months before he killed Blessie Gotingco.

Robertson was released from jail in December 2013 after an eight-year sentence for kidnapping and molesting a 5-year-old Tauranga girl in December 2005. The girl was found with Robertson in his car at Kaiate Falls in Welcome Bay, 45 minutes after she had been abducted.

I will never forget that investigation and that trial that we had. Terrible, disgraceful, appalling.

Retired Detective Sergeant Peter Blackwell

Retired Detective Sergeant Pete Blackwell told the Bay of Plenty Times of his concerns last year after Robertson was charged with breaching his parole conditions.

Robertson pleaded guilty to breaking his parole conditions by hosting a visitor overnight at his Parole Board-approved accommodation.

He was sentenced to two months' imprisonment at the end of February 2014.

At the time, Robertson was also awaiting a scheduled hearing for allegedly visiting a park, "where children were likely to congregate".

Mr Blackwell was one of the officers who worked on the abduction case in 2005 and gave evidence at Robertson's trial.

"It was horrendous offending by him," he said last year.

"He is one offender who concerns me - he is still in denial."

It was "extremely concerning" but unsurprising for Robertson to breach his conditions as he continued to deny he had any part in the abduction, Mr Blackwell said.

"He is one offender that I have very, very serious concerns about his re-offending."

Mr Blackwell said he had a more personal connection to the case because Robertson had claimed during the trial that he had planted evidence.

He is one offender that I have very, very serious concerns about his re-offending.

Retired Detective Sergeant Peter Blackwell

"I will never forget that investigation and that trial that we had. Terrible, disgraceful, appalling."

High Court judge Justice Edwin Wylie also said last year that he was satisfied Robertson possessed very considerable risk. "I consider that it is likely that he will commit an indecency on a child under the age of 12 years, and that he will abduct a child for the purpose of sexual connection," he said.