PAEDOPHILES are importing lifelike silicon sex dolls in the shape of children as young as 12.

The sick abusers are ­attempting to exploit legal loopholes to avoid prosecution and even labelling the dolls as movie props in an attempt to fool authorities.

child abuse campaigners have warned the dolls, which can include ­removable silicon genital ­inserts, are “one step away” from real child sex and the law should do whatever it takes to outlaw them.

One Sydney man has been charged with owning a doll ­allegedly in the shape of a girl “12 to 14 years of age” and is set to fight the charges by claiming it does not fit the legal definition of “child abuse mater-ial”. The case is believed to be among the first of its kind in NSW. If successful, the 32-year-old IT worker could force the government to rewrite laws dealing with child abuse material to outlaw possession of child-shaped sex dolls.

The man will argue the NSW Crimes Act defines child abuse material as videos, ima-ges and literature but not physical objects like his doll, which is 132cm tall and weighs about 30kg.

Australian Federal Police raided the man’s apartment in July 2013 and allegedly found the mannequin in his bed dressed in a satin dressing gown. The man told police when he got the doll he “played dress up, then put it in my bed (and used) it as a hug pillow when I sleep”.

He was charged with possessing child abuse material, a police fact sheet said. Police said the doll, which featured a removable silicon genital insert, was in the shape a female “approximately 12 to 14 years of age”, and was purchased from a website for $3667.

His lawyer, Benjamin Goh, said the legal definition of child abuse material needs to be updated to include three ­dimen-sional inanimate objects before his client can be convicted.

“The government needs to make sure the law keeps up with what’s on the market,” Mr Goh said. “It is similar to when synthetic drugs were not captured under law. There were substances that had similar ­effects to LSD and ecstasy but were completely legal before the laws were changed.”

The man ordered the mannequin from an Australian arm of a Chinese website. The Australian website has since been taken down and the Asian site has removed the 132cm dolls for sale from its website.

Victims of Crime Assistance League spokesman Howard Brown said the law should do whatever it takes to outlaw the dolls. “It won’t matter how ­repulsed a judge or a magistrate is,” Mr Brown said.

The Australian Federal Police did not respond to ­request for an interview.