More than a dozen child sex dolls are being seized at Britain’s borders every month, with prosecutors using a Victorian law to crack down on the sick trade.
Customs officials have reported stopping 230 items suspected to be child sex dolls from entering the country in the past 18 months, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
While there is no specific offense of possessing the dolls, prosecutors are being told to go after suspects under existing laws, such as the Customs Consolidation Act of 1876, which bans the import of indecent or obscene articles.
The CPS has identified the law prohibiting the import of illegal materials, along with the Customs and Excise Acts of 1979, as part of a new effort to close a legal loophole under which there is no specific offense for possessing the dolls.
Now anyone caught trying to bring in the dolls, which are manufactured to allow adults to engage in sex acts with them, could be jailed for up to seven years.
This was how Brian Leach, 62, from Maidstone in Kent, ended up being handed a 28-week jail sentence last month.
He was arrested after ordering a 3-foot-tall doll from China, which was worth $650, before admitting the importation offense as well as making indecent images of a child.
Despite his claims that the doll was to be a companion, police said the package included accessories “which clearly indicated it to be an object for sexual gratification.”
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has welcomed the new measures and hoped it would “clamp down” on distributors and act as a “deterrent” to potential buyers.
“There is no ambiguity that they are designed to depict children and their purpose is to stimulate sex,” a spokesperson said.
“We have serious worries that adults who use sex dolls could become desensitized and their behavior would become normal to them so that they go on to harm children.”
Investigations have also started with a suspect being caught with a doll, before being charged with separate offenses.
On Wednesday, Donald Styles, 61, from Newton Abbot in Devon, was jailed for 18 months for possession and making indecent photographs.
Styles claimed he’d purchased the 3-foot doll from China for an art project after it was intercepted at customs.
Police raided his home and found 149 films and images of child abuse, including rape.
A judge said his story was “ridiculous” and jailed him for 18 months.
“There is no place in society for these dolls. Importing them is a crucial flag to potential offending against children,” National Crime Agency specialist operations manager Hazel Stewart said.
She added that 20 of 26 recent offenders convicted over child sex dolls were also found with indecent images of children.
https://nypost.com/2019/03/29/hundreds-of-child-sex-dolls-seized-at-britains-borders-in-crackdown/
2019-03-29 17:47:00Z
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