An East London man let off the hook for importing a child sex doll intercepted at an airport will not face charges over two more childlike dolls seized from his home due to a legal loophole. Wesley Clarke, 43, got caught out by an 1876 law that prevents the importation of ‘indecent or obscene’ items, but ‘possession of a childlike sex doll is not unlawful per se’, according to CPS guidance.
The former quantity surveyor, of Chelmsford Avenue in Romford, walked free from the Old Bailey on Thursday (August 14), after Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC gave Clarke no separate penalty for being ‘knowingly concerned in a fraudulent attempt at evasion of the prohibition on the importation’ of a child sex doll that was seized by Border Force at Stansted Airport on May 11 2021.
After assessing the doll as around 10 years old in appearance, Met Police officers burst through Clarke’s front door at 6am on June 18 and found two more childlike dolls, this time looking around 13 and 15 years old. Detectives also found children’s clothing, including two skirts sized for four-to-five-year-olds, and electronic devices containing thousands of prohibited cartoons and indecent images.
MyLondon understands the imported sex doll was seized by police, but Clarke will have the option to keep the two other child sex dolls because no forfeiture or destruction order was made by the Crown at Thursday’s hearing. “It’s not illegal, but I don’t think he will be asking for them back,” said a source with knowledge of the case.
Clarke, then earning £70,000 a year, admitted buying the £700 doll from a Chinese company called ‘LoveDolls’, but claimed it only appeared like a child because he was trying to save money by selecting ‘4ft11in tall and the smallest breasts’. Under pressure for answers from detectives, Clarke later confessed a sexual interest in uniforms and schoolchildren.
Clarke also denied knowing what the doll would look like before he bought it, telling police ‘Wow. That is not what I was expecting’ when they showed him a photo. Asked what he would have done if it was delivered, Clarke claimed he would have put it straight in his attic because he has no way of driving stuff to the dump.
Clarke was charged with the importation offence, two counts of distributing indecent photos, three counts of making indecent images, one count of possessing prohibited images, and one count of possessing extreme pornography. He pleaded guilty to all the offences at Barkingside Magistrates Court on June 18 this year.
‘A one-off incident’
Defence counsel Tim Banks said Clarke’s arrest sent his life ‘off the rails’, causing him to lose a well-paid job and fall into depression and drinking. “The defendant was lonely, isolated, and drinking too much. He became depressed. Had too much time on his hands and this case occurred,” said Mr Banks, adding: “This unusual case is not as serious as other cases that come through the courts.”
Mr Banks also said the uncertainty of waiting for a charging decision had caused Clarke stress, coupled with feelings of ’embarrassment and worthlessness’ over the nature of the offences. “He is deeply ashamed of what has happened and I pray and aid there will be no reoffending.”
In her sentencing remarks, Judge Whitehouse recognised ‘it’s not prohibited to possess these dolls’, adding ‘the only relevance [of the other child sex dolls] really is it may give some insight into your sexual interest in children’. The judge was more concerned about the indecent images offences, some of which involved real children being sexually abused by adults.
Clarke admitted the distribution charge, but had only sent a few Category B and C images to a small number of people. The possession offences he admitted included 17,000 prohibited cartoons of children and forty indecent images in Category A (the worst kind involving penetrative sexual activity).
“This was a one-off incident and it was not certainly part of any large trade in these items,” said Judge Whitehouse, explaining that although the offences reached the custody threshold, Clarke’s personal mitigation and time spent waiting for the case to come to court meant it could be dealt with using an 18-month Community Order.
Clarke will have to complete 26 sessions of an alcohol treatment programme and 30 days of rehabilitation activity requirement. He must also notify police for five years and comply with a sexual harm prevention order.
What the law says
CPS guidance says there is no law against possession or the manufacture of a child sex doll, but charges can arise from:
- Importation of indecent or obscene articles under Section 42 of the Customs Consolidation Act 1876
- Publishing an obscene article under Section 2(1) of the Obscene Publications Act 1959
- Sending a postal packet with encloses any indecent or obscene article under Section 85(3)(b) of the Postal Services Act 2000
Clarke was charged as fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of goods contrary to Section 170 of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979, which states it is an offence to ‘knowingly acquire possession of… goods with respect to the importation or exportation of which any prohibition or restriction is for the time being in force under or by virtue of any enactment’.
‘Any enactment’ in this case meant Clarke fell foul of Section 42 of Customs Consolidation Act 1876, which originally set out a table of of banned items including ‘indecent or obscene prints, paintings, photographs, books, cards, lithographic or other engravings, or any other indecent or obscene articles’.
In the first case of its kind in 2017, a judge ruled child sex dolls were obscene items, as per the definition of Section 1 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959, which states articles are deemed obscene if they ‘tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it’.
In another case in 2017, defence lawyers at Canterbury Crown Court tried to argue a child sex doll should not be considered obscene, but this was dismissed by Judge Simon James who said ‘any right-thinking person’ would disagree, given its intended purpose.
In 2019, the CPS said 230 suspected child sex dolls had been seized by the UK Border Force and referred to the National Crime Agency, since September 2016. There have been calls from the NCA and NSPCC for full criminalisation, including manufacture or possession.
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