COVINGTON, Ky. -- A Kenton County grand jury indicted a Fort Mitchell man on a child porn charge after the shipment of a child sex doll from China drew the attention of authorities.
The charge of possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor against 39-year-old Scott Phillips stems from material recovered from his cellphone, according to Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders.
Search warrants show the phone, a computer, a camera and two child sex dolls were seized when Kentucky State Police arrested Phillips at his Fort Mitchell apartment last month.
Judge Douglas Grothaus ended up dismissing the first charge against Phillips of having an item portraying a sexual performance by a minor related to the sex doll, saying that a doll isn't a person and therefore not child porn.
Customs officials tracked the package containing the child sex doll from China. They alerted Homeland Security officials, who notified Kentucky State Police. Troopers said they watched to see whether Phillips would accept the package, and then arrested him and searched his apartment after he did.
Sanders previously told WCPO he’s never seen a case quite like this.
"Certainly, it’s shocking," he said. "My first reaction when the state police brought me this case was, ‘Who even makes a child sex doll?’ That’s just disgusting."
After the judge said he found the doll repulsive, but dismissed the initial charge citing a Ninth Circuit Court decision, Sanders said he was considering an appeal and that he believed state legislators should pass a law stating the child sex doll counts as child porn.
"That way we won’t have to have this dispute if anyone’s sick enough to order a child sex doll in the future," he said then.
