A 31 year old Sydney man has been granted bail after being charged by the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Border Force with possessing and importing what police allege is a child like sex doll.

The investigation began in late May, when ABF officers intercepted an air cargo consignment addressed to the man, allegedly containing a child like sex doll, according to the AFP.

On 4 June, officers from the ABF and AFP executed search warrants at a Quakers Hill address in Sydney's north west. Investigators seized a second child like sex doll, children's clothing, and multiple digital devices, the AFP said.

The man was charged with:

  • One count of possessing a child like sex doll, contrary to section 273A.1 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth). Maximum penalty: 15 years' imprisonment.
  • One count of importing tier 2 goods, contrary to section 233BAB(5) of the Customs Act 1901. Maximum penalty: 10 years' imprisonment and fines of up to $825,000.

What the agencies say

AFP Detective Acting Superintendent Emmanuel Tsardoulias said the dolls were not benign objects.

"Child-like sex dolls desensitise users from the physical, emotional, and psychological harm inflicted on real children who are exploited, and they do not dissuade people from offending in reality," Det a/Supt Tsardoulias said.

He said the AFP would pursue "any form of child exploitation or activity that encourages or reinforces the sexual abuse of children, which includes using items such as these dolls, which are legally classified as child exploitation material."

ABF Superintendent Shaun Baker said the items found at the property reflected the scale of the alleged offending.

"The discovery of additional child-like sex dolls at the property demonstrates the ongoing and deeply concerning nature of the offending," Supt Baker said.

"The use of child-like sex dolls abhorrently normalises child exploitation and is far from a victimless crime. We will continue to target and intercept offenders, working closely with our partners in child protection and law enforcement, to ensure they are held accountable."

The man was granted bail and is due to appear before Penrith Local Court on 17 July.

The bail gap

The bail decision is the magistrate's call under the law as it stands, and the law as it stands has gaps that both sides of politics have left in place.

At the Commonwealth level, section 15AAA of the Crimes Act 1914 creates a presumption against bail for certain Commonwealth child sex offences. That presumption was inserted by the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Sexual Crimes Against Children and Community Protection Measures) Act 2020 under the Morrison Coalition government, and applies to bail decisions made from 23 June 2020.

The presumption automatically applies on a first charge only to the most serious "first strike" offences, the ones carrying a mandatory minimum penalty. Possession of a child like sex doll under section 273A.1 carries a 15 year maximum but no mandatory minimum, so the federal presumption against bail does not automatically apply on a first charge.

At the state level, the Bail Act 2013 (NSW) was introduced by the O'Farrell Coalition government and commenced on 20 May 2014. The "show cause" requirement in section 16B forces the accused to satisfy the court that detention is not justified, but it only applies to a defined list of serious offences. That list includes any offence punishable by life imprisonment, certain serious indictable child sex offences involving sexual intercourse with a person under 16, serious personal violence offences, weapons and drug offences. Possession of a child like sex doll is not on the list.

Because neither of those harder tests applied, the magistrate had to use the default test under section 17 of the NSW Bail Act 2013. Under that test the onus sits with the Crown, not the accused. The Crown has to satisfy the court there is an unacceptable risk that the accused will fail to appear, commit a serious offence on bail, endanger safety, or interfere with witnesses or evidence, and that the risk can't be managed by bail conditions.

Standard bail conditions for offences of this kind usually include reporting to police, surrender of passport, residence at a stated address, no contact with anyone under 18, and conditions covering internet and device use. The conditions imposed in this case have not been disclosed in the AFP release. The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions can ask the NSW Supreme Court to review a grant of bail under section 67 of the Bail Act 2013.

Whether either of those frameworks should be extended to cover child like sex doll offences is a policy question that now sits with the current attorneys-general, Michelle Rowland federally and Michael Daley in NSW, both Labor.

The registers exist. The public just can't see them.

Every state and territory in Australia operates a Child Protection Offender Register. The data is shared nationally through the Australian National Child Offenders Register, managed by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. Police can see who is on it. The community cannot.

The only Australian jurisdiction with a fully public child sex offender register is Queensland. The Crisafulli LNP government's Community Protection and Public Child Sex Offender Register (Daniel's Law) Act 2025 passed the Queensland Parliament in August 2025, received royal assent on 6 November 2025 and commenced on 31 December 2025. It is named after Daniel Morcombe, the 13 year old Sunshine Coast boy abducted and murdered in 2003 by a convicted child sex offender.

Western Australia has run a more limited public Community Protection website since 2012, where the police commissioner can publish information about certain offenders on a case by case basis. New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory have no public scheme of any kind.

At the federal level, a national public register has been raised and dropped twice. The Morrison Coalition government announced consultations on a National Public Register of Child Sex Offenders in 2019. The policy did not progress under the Coalition. Peter Dutton took a $21.3 million pilot of a National Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme to the 2025 federal election as Opposition Leader, modelled on the WA and UK schemes. The Coalition lost that election. The Albanese Labor government has not pursued a national public register or disclosure scheme.

So in every state outside Queensland, and at the Commonwealth level, the answer to the parent who wants to know whether the person living next door is a registered child sex offender is the same. The police know. You do not.

AI material is the next gap

Beyond bail and registers, agencies are now flagging AI generated child abuse material as the next pressure point.

Independent MP Kate Chaney introduced the Criminal Code Amendment (Using Technology to Generate Child Abuse Material) Bill 2025 in the House of Representatives in July 2025, to make it an offence to download AI tools designed to generate child abuse material and to collect or distribute data to train them. Existing law criminalises the material itself, not the tools that produce it. The government has not introduced its own bill on the same gap.

The federal government released its response to the statutory review of the Online Safety Act 2021 on 14 April 2026, almost a year after the review was handed down. The response committed to acting on 64 of the review's 67 recommendations, including a "digital duty of care" for online service providers. Communications Minister Anika Wells announced in September 2025 that the government would restrict nudify apps. No timeframe was given.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has used existing powers under the Online Safety Act to take action of her own, including a formal warning to a UK based nudify provider in September 2025 and a Direction to Comply issued against an Argentina based nudify service in May 2026, after the Age-Restricted Material Codes came into force in March 2026.

For now, the Quakers Hill matter is listed for Penrith Local Court on 17 July.

If you think a child is in immediate danger call Triple Zero (000), Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000, or your local police.

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