Former school governor who imported child sex doll is jailed

A former school governor and church warden who was caught trying to import a child sex doll has been jailed for 16 months.

David Turner also admitted to Canterbury Crown Court that he possessed 34,000 images of child sexual abuse.

The doll, which was 3ft 10in tall, was imported from China and Turner also bought clothes for it, the court heard.

The 72-year-old also had two other child sex dolls.

Turner was sentenced to eight months for owning the doll and eight months for possessing images of child sexual abuse.

His lawyers had tried to argue the doll was not covered by any law banning importation, but the court ruled the it was an obscene item.

He is only one of seven people to date who have been convicted for possessing the obscene dolls in the UK.

After being arrested, Turner admitted he had a preference for indecent images of girls aged between four and 10 and that he had secretly taken pictures of minors in public.

Officers found images of children as young as three.

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He was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years and given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.

The court heard that he had also written almost 30 fictional stories which described the rape of children.

However these stories fell outside the Obscene Publications Act.

‘Importing child dolls to have sex with – as David Turner did – is a crucial flag to potential offending against children,’ said the National Crime Agency’s Hazel Stewart.

“In this case it enabled us to uncover Turner’s long-standing sexual interest in children. He should not be near them and I am delighted that our investigation has seen him convicted and jailed.”

Turner is one of seven people in the UK to have been convicted for possessing the obscene dolls to-date.

In total, the Border Force has seized 123 dolls from 120 different people since March 2016.