Winnipeg man faces prison for child and baby sex dolls

WINNIPEG — Border agents who caught a Winnipeg man trying to import an anatomically correct underage teen sex doll led to the discovery of a collection in his home that included several depicting baby girls no more than a year old.

Jonathan Paul Sirski, in his mid-40s, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography Thursday, admitting he kept a large number of child sexual abuse images on electronic devices, along with at least a dozen of the dolls, in his Fort Richmond home.

Crown prosecutor Victor Bellay outlined the case against Sirski, reading from an agreed statement of facts to provincial court Judge Cindy Sholdice, before he entered his guilty plea.

On Aug. 4 last year, Bellay said, Canada Border Services Agency officers in Vancouver intercepted a package, imported from China, that was slated to be shipped to Sirski’s home on Dalhousie Drive.

“CBSA officers opened the package and located an anatomically correct juvenile female doll,” Bellay told court.

The border agents contacted Winnipeg Police Service internet child exploitation investigators on Aug. 15.

Two Winnipeg detectives viewed photographs of the seized doll and “believed it depicted a child between the ages of 13 and 14 years and therefore met the definition of child pornography,” said Bellay.

Investigators then placed Sirski under surveillance, watching him leave his home on Sept. 3 and go to the University of Manitoba, where he worked as an instructional technologist. It’s unclear if he remains employed there.

A U of M official said Thursday the post-secondary institution is aware of the case, but would not comment further, citing privacy legislation.

On Sept. 4, the package was delivered to Sirski’s home and at 6:30 a.m. the next day, police investigators showed up at his door with a search warrant and arrested him, said Bellay.

Inside his home, officers found a disturbing collection, said Bellay, which included a female infant doll.

Sirski was found to have seven of the infant dolls and several other dolls depicting older but still prepubescent girls. One was found on the toilet seat in a washroom in his home.

He had “a number of accessories for the dolls, including wigs, children’s clothing and underwear, gloves, combs, soothers, bottles and diapers,” said Bellay.

On three electronic devices, which included a hard drive, investigators located more than 4,000 images of child sexual abuse.

On Oct. 5 last year, Sirski sat for an interview with a detective, who he told he first acquired a child doll six to eight months earlier and that he could not recall how many he had ordered.

He told the detective he modified some of the dolls to simulate intercourse and that he had ordered them while he was intoxicated on an unspecified substance, Bellay said.

Also in October, Bellay told court, border agents in Vancouver found two more dolls Sirski had ordered.

The two dolls were identical and depicted a baby girl no more than a year old with vaginal and anal openings, the prosecutor said.

Sirski will be sentenced at a later date.

Bellay, who told the judge he was appearing in court Thursday on behalf of another prosecutor, said he did not know what sentencing recommendation his colleague will make, but that he expects it will be a term behind bars.

Sirski’s lawyer, Joshua Rogala, told Sholdice that his client is aware he may be sentenced to a federal prison. That would require an incarceration term longer than two years.

Manufacturing childlike sex dolls is typically not prohibited in countries such as China and Japan, but possessing them is banned under Canadian law.

Charges can be laid if a doll used for sexual purposes even slightly resembles a child, an RCMP investigator told the Winnipeg Free Press last year.

Another local man, Jeffrey Sewell, accused by Winnipeg police of similarly possessing childlike sex dolls last year, remains before the court.

Border agents intercepted a similar doll destined for his home in Silver Heights in August last year, police said. Investigators have alleged Sewell imported similar items and children’s clothing between December 2022 and August 2024.

His next court date is in November.

» Winnipeg Free Press