Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Sick sex dolls look like kids
NSPCC argues for tougher import rules
PAEDOPHILES are paying £6,000 to import child-like sex dolls into the UK, a Sunday Mirror investigation reveals.
Our probe found 153 perverts have been caught trying to sneak the “toys” in from the Far East.
Sick profiteers selling the dolls give them names like CandyGirl, Pettite Jewel and Petite Nano.
Many are designed to look like adults. But others stand 4ft, are flat chested and in school uniforms.
Under UK law it is legal to own the dolls, but importers can face prosecution. Yet that is not stopping perverts doing so. And children’s charity the NSPCC wants new laws to curb the sinister trade.
Our team travelled to Tokyo where one manufacturer boasted of soaring numbers of Brit clients.
Orient Industries manager Junpei Oguchi spoke as he stood amid dolls in provocative poses. He eagerly invited us to touch the dolls – which, creepily, have a fleshy feel.
We spoke at his second-floor showroom, hidden in an anonymous building beneath a busy flyover in the north of the Japanese capital. Mr Oguchi says: “Many people buy them for companionship, just for looking. They enjoy dressing them.”
But the NSPCC warns dolls like this have only one purpose. Almudena Lara, NSPCC head of policy, said: “These sinister dolls look like children and their purpose is to simulate sex.
“Yet in England and Wales it’s not a crime to make, sell or own them.
“And while it’s illegal to import an obscene or indecent item, a loophole means defendants can argue their sex doll is not obscene. That is just bizarre.”
In September David Turner, 72 – a former school church warden from Ramsgate, Kent – was jailed for 16 months for importing a child sex doll from China and having indecent images. The £1,000, 3ft 10ins doll was intercepted at Stansted Airport.
The landmark case established this particular sex doll is obscene. More than 34,000 illegal images of abuse of children aged three to 16 were found after Turner’s arrest.
But the NSPCC warns tougher sentences are needed. Ms Lara added: “The law on child-like sex dolls must be brought in line with the law on child sexual abuse images.”
Hazel Stewart, of the National Crime Agency’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command, said: “We know their purchase can indicate other offences against children. Importers should expect to have law enforcement closing in on them.”
Dan Scully, the Border Force’s Deputy Director, Intelligence Operations, said: “We were quick to address the issue of child sex doll importations and our joint multiagency unit enabled prosecutions.”