Suspected paedophiles identified amid surge of child sex doll imports

A surge in seizures of child-like sex dolls by border officers has led investigators to identify dozens of previously unknown suspected paedophiles.

The lifelike silicone sex aids, which weigh around 55lb (25kg) and can cost thousands of pounds, are being imported into the UK after being sold by traders on sites including Amazon and eBay, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

Border Force officers have seized 123 dolls in little more than a year since March 2016 and so far seven people have been charged with importing them, including one man who was jailed last month.

The figures were revealed as a judge at Canterbury Crown Court dismissed an attempt by ex-primary school governor David Turner’s barrister to argue that a doll he imported was not obscene.

Former churchwarden Turner, 72, pleaded guilty on Monday to importing the child sex doll after the application to dismiss the charge was turned down.

Of the seven men charged with importing the dolls so far, six also faced allegations linked to child abuse images.

Dan Scully, deputy director for intelligence operations at the Border Force, said this showed those who ordered the models often strayed into sex crimes.

“What’s critical, I think, for this investigation, these items were going to individuals, in many cases, who were committing other offences in relation to harm of children,” he said.

“They were also, critically, people who were otherwise unknown to UK law enforcement in having an interest in sexual activity with children.

“By identifying these importations, working with partners, what we’ve identified is a whole set of people with interests in sexual activity with children who were completely unknown.”

Ms Stewart said the dolls were unlike those people might associate with stag dos and were the precursor to more sophisticated child sex robots, which she warned were “just around the corner”.

“They are the weight of a seven-year-old child, they are not something that is the traditional blow-up doll,” she said.

The dolls, with their unnerving glass-eye stare, false eyelashes and crooked fingers and toes, often come packaged with accessories including a choice of wigs, a USB device to warm the spongy silicone skin, and a cleaning device.

The trial of issue at Canterbury Crown Court in the case of Turner, of Hollicondane Road, Ramsgate, was described as setting an “important” precedent in how suspects can be prosecuted.

Turner was unable to be sentenced on Monday because a pre-sentence report had not been prepared. Judge Simon James said the importation of a child sex doll was an “unusual offence” and that it “adds a degree of complexity”.

He was freed on bail to be sentenced on September 8 for the importation charge and for pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to possessing or making more than 34,000 indecent images of children aged around three to 16.

The NSPCC called on the Government to criminalise the manufacturing, distribution and possession of child sex dolls, and for online retailers to remove them immediately.

Barnardo’s chief executive Javed Khan said: “We welcome the action by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Border Force to ban these obscene and realistic sex dolls based on young children.”

An Amazon spokesman said: “All Marketplace sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who don’t will be subject to action, including potential removal of their account”, while eBay added: “Items of this nature are prohibited from being sold on our platform. Our teams conduct regular sweeps of the site to remove any listings that contravene our policies.”