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A sex doll found in a suitcase on a remote stretch of NSW road was dressed like a sex worker with mock bruises and injuries, sparking fears among police and experts that whoever dumped it was acting out a violent fantasy against women.
Discovery of the doll on Sunday triggered a short-lived murder investigation when it was located by two men during a bathroom break on a road south of Goulburn.
So disturbing were the doll’s features – a head of rain-matted hair, a nose piercing and markings that resembled bruising and grazes – the men thought they had uncovered an awful tragedy.
Police close to the investigation but not authorised to speak publicly are now concerned the person who dumped the doll might have been acting out a violent fetish.
Caitlin Roper, campaigns manager for anti-sexploitation movement Collective Shout, told this masthead the dumping of sex dolls was not uncommon.
“People discover what they initially believe is a woman’s body – often mutilated, ripped apart or decapitated – but is actually a doll,” she said.
“These dolls become training objects for violence against women and children.”
Roper has spent hours on sex-doll forums, monitoring owners’ who say they are buying dolls to practise extreme sexual abuse. In 2022, she published a book Sex Dolls, Robots and Woman Hating: The Case for Resistance, documenting her findings.
“They shared realistic scenarios of predation that they acted out on their dolls. One user posted photographs of a doll bound with rope, explaining that he was practising how to tie women up and render them helpless,” she said.
“Other men described being so rough that they broke their dolls and had to send them away for repairs. One lamented that his doll would not fight back, saying, ‘If Tonya fought back, I’d be in heaven’.”
As with the find on the weekend, many on the forum adorned their doll with fake bruises, cuts, blood and injuries.
Roper said there are multiple cases involving the owners of adult and child sex dolls – the latter are illegal in Australia – going on to carry out violence against women and girls.
She pointed to the recent case of Perth man Jason William Forbes, a doll owner, who plotted to kidnap a young girl and keep her as a sex slave in his attic.
“[Forbes] allegedly developed an elaborate plot to abduct a child. He had soundproofed an attic, researched chloroform, looked up schools and childcare centres, and marked locations on a map,” Roper said. “He was intercepted after purchasing a second doll.”
Roper said sex dolls, even childlike ones, are often dismissed as fantasies or mere objects. But many of the men she witnessed online have treated their dolls as partners.
“These are not simply sex toys; they are replicas of human beings that some owners regard as partners.”
Criminologist and former NSW Police detective Vince Hurley said using child-like sex dolls could desensitise offenders and normalise abuse of children. It could also evolve into in-person offending.
‘The issue of consent doesn’t even come into it because they just use these sex dolls as they see fit, whenever they see fit.’
Vince Hurley, criminologist
“It could reinforce any sexual attraction to children over time that might traverse into the real world,” Hurley said.
“There would be nothing to say that it stops in their fake or false reality and then doesn’t transition into a real child.”
Men using sex dolls, similar to those using artificial intelligence chatbots, avoid rejection. Doing so warps their perception of relationships and consent, he said.
“They will always have this perception that women will always be accepting of their behaviour and their attitudes because the chatbots never contradict them,” he said.
“The issue of consent doesn’t even come into it because they just use these sex dolls as they see fit, whenever they see fit.”
The Australian market for sex dolls
Life-like sex dolls similar to the one found on Sunday are readily available online and can be customised to meet buyers’ desires.
High-end dolls retail for thousands of dollars. The growing market represents what police say is a worrying trend.
In June, Australian Federal Police arrested a 31-year-old Quakers Hill man for trying to import a child sex doll, and allegedly found a second at his home.
AFP Commander Jo Cameron said child-like sex dolls may desensitise users from the physical, emotional and psychological harm inflicted on real children.
“Child-like sex dolls are not harmless objects – they are illegal to possess and can contribute to the exploitation of victims in the community,” Cameron said.
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