When Border Force officers at Stansted Airport discovered a naked child inside a parcel in June 2021, the girl was not breathing. In fact, she had never taken a breath. Inside the package addressed to Mr Wesley Clarke, of Chelmsford Avenue in Romford, there was a sex doll, so childlike in its appearance that even Clarke’s jaw dropped when he saw it for the first time.
Within days, police officers swarmed Clarke’s home, discovering two more sex dolls. According to Detective Constable Kerry Smith, one was dressed in a black skirt and appeared 13-years-old, while the other was undressed and looked about 15. Officers also found four plastic replacement eyes, two skirts sized four-to-five-years-old, and a dress and t-shirt labelled for small children.
Under questioning at Romford Police Station, Clarke, 43, admitted purchasing the imported sex doll for around £700 from a company called ‘Lovedolls’, but claimed it only appeared like a child because he was trying to save money.
“It was cheaper that he selected 4ft11in tall and the smallest breasts,” prosecutor Margaret Anucha told the Old Bailey on Wednesday (August 13), recalling what Clarke had claimed in his interrogation.
“He did not select for the doll to have a teenage appearance. He said the webpage only showed one photo of the doll dressed and laying on a bed. He did not see the final product before it was sent.”
Clarke repeatedly denied knowing the doll would look like a child, and claimed the children’s clothing at his home were the only items small enough to fit. Under pressure for answers however, Clarke confessed a sexual interest in uniforms and schoolchildren. He pleaded guilty to all the offences at Barkingside Magistrates Court on June 18.
When police showed him a photo of his seized doll, Clarke said: “Wow. That is not what I was expecting.” 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.
Out of three laptops, three phones, a hard drive, USB stick, and an iPad only one device was clean of illegal images. Clarke, 43, would later demand his work phone back, telling police: “I don’t mix business with pleasure.”
The devices contained more than 17,000 prohibited cartoons of children, forty indecent images in Category A (the worst penetrative child sexual abuse imagery), and 52 extreme porn images involving the abuse of animals.
‘Rather unusual’ offence – what the law says
At the outset of the hearing, Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC said the case was ‘rather unusual’ and ‘not an offence we often come across’.
“The first charge is being concerned with the fraudulent importation of prohibited goods, which arises from the 1876 Act, which is extraordinary,” said the judge. Clarke’s defence counsel Tim Banks claimed his client had no idea he was breaking the law until his arrest on June 18 2021.
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.
Crown Prosecution Service guidance says there is no law for simple possession of a child sex doll, but charges can arise from:
- Importation of indecent or obscene articles under Section 43 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
In Clarke’s case, as the recipient of an indecent or obscene article, he fell foul of the 1876 law which carries a maximum seven year sentence. In this scenario, obscene or indecent are defined by the 1959 Act as material which has the tendency to deprave and corrupt (cause moral harm to those who view it).
Clarke is due to be sentenced tomorrow morning after Judge Whitehouse has heard more detail on the facts, and mitigation from Mr Banks. The case comes after we reported on a man caught in a doorstep romp with his sex doll in Croydon. Peter Hudson avoided jail this April after neighbours chanced upon him enjoying a session with his plaything in full view.
Got a tip, a court date, or some gossip? Please email [email protected] or WhatsApp 07580255582.
Don’t miss out on the latest crime stories from across London. Sign up to MyLondon’s Court & Crime newsletter HERE.
