DILI, 16 january 2025 (TATOLI) – The Dili Court of First Instance on thursday, 15 january 2026 sentenced Australian national Robert Trott to 20 years in jail for sexual crimes against children in Timor-Leste.
The court also ordered his immediate preventive detention following a reappraisal of a 2024 decision.
The sentence follows an appeal process in which Trott, initially convicted in june 2024 of two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of minors, sought acquittal, while JU,S Jurídico Social, acting as legal representative of the victims, challenged the court’s earlier counting of offences in a case involving approximately 100 acts of sexual abuse.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the Trott’s appeal against conviction and upheld the victims’ argument on the incorrect determination of offences, remitting the case to the Dili Court of First Instance for a reassessment limited to the correct counting of crimes under the legal regime governing concurrence of offences.
In a reappraisal decision delivered in open court, the Dili court ruled that the proven facts constituted seven counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a minor, treating each act as a separate offence punishable by seven years’ imprisonment.
The court also found the defendant guilty of one count of ill-treatment of minors, covering the remaining 93 acts of abuse that could not be clearly individualised, and imposed a three-year prison sentence for that offence.
Based on these multiple counts and the applicable statutory limits, the court imposed a single aggregate sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment, with JU,S noting that any further appeal by the defendant can now only concern the length of the sentence, as the conviction itself has already been upheld.
JU,S Jurídico Social, through its lawyers and trainee lawyers, represented the victims as assistants to the prosecution and described the case as a positive demonstration of Timor-Leste’s justice system, highlighting effective cooperation between Australian law enforcement authorities and the National Police of Timor-Leste, particularly the Vulnerable Persons Unit.
The victim has not been identified for legal reasons. JU,S Jurídico Social said that Trott sexually abused the child over several years, starting when the victim was around seven or eight and continuing until the age of 12.
Trott was initially detained in Dili in 2022 after authorities responded to a report made by an Australian national to the Australian Federal Police.
However, he was later released, and the case remained stalled until late last year, when official charges were brought against him and his passport was confiscated during the investigation.
Trott, originally from Adelaide, Australia, is the first foreign national in Timor-Leste to receive the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for sexual abuse crimes against children.
Another foreigner, American priest Richard Daschbach, was previously sentenced in 2021 to 12 years in prison for abusing four girls at an orphanage.
TATOLI
