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A company is manufacturing sex dolls for paedophiles who want to control their sexual impulses.

And the founder says that they may well be a valuable weapon in the fight against the sexual abuse of real children.

Shin Takagi has founded Trottla, a company which produces anatomically-correct imitations of girls, with ages as young as five.

And the reaction from the general public has been one of outrage.

Read more:Mirror Online readers have their say on 'child sex dolls'

Commenter Macdaddypastyman said: "Surely this can't be healthy and it's not a massive step for some sicko who has been practising on a doll to snatch a kid and try it for real."

Read more:

On Twitter, Omnipotent I Am said: "This is basically saying its ok if it's a doll, problem is, what happens when they want a real child?"

User Koko added: "That kind of behavior should not be encouraged or assisted. People who are sexually attracted to children are SICK."

The company has been going for a decade, and has clients all over the world.

(Image: Getty)

But Takagi said they are a tool for those who, like him, struggle with an ongoing sexual attraction towards children.

He said: “We should accept that there is no way to change someone’s fetishes.

“I am helping people express their desires, legally and ethically. It’s not worth living if you have to live with repressed desire."

There are currently treatments which are used for paedophiles, including cognitive-behavioural therapy and chemical castration, along with other interventions intended to suppress urges.

(Image: Rex)

But although they are used widely, a meta-analysis by the Mayo Clinic concluded such treatments “do not change the pedophile’s basic sexual orientation toward children".

According to Takagi, his dolls save children from sexual abuse, and his clients - mostly men living alone - write and thank him for that service.

"I often receive letters from buyers. The letters say, ‘Thanks to your dolls, I can keep from committing a crime.’”

(Image: Rex)

He told The Atlantic that these correspondents include doctors, prep school teachers and even celebrities

Michael Seto, a psychologist and sexologist at the University of Toronto, told The Atlantic that there are two different types of paedophile.

Related video: Chinese migrant workers buy £14,000 sex dolls so they won't cheat on their wives:

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"For some, access to artificial child pornography or to child sex dolls could be a safer outlet for their sexual urges, reducing the likelihood that they would seek out child pornography or sex with real children.

“For others, having these substitutes might only aggravate their sense of frustration.”