A COMPANY offering to create sex dolls to look like real woman has been branded "completely sexist at the very least, and extremely offensive at worst".

Lovedoll UK, which has its headquarters on an industrial estate in Felling, Gateshead, sells made-to-order synthetic sex dolls which can be designed to resemble a partner, crush or celebrity.

The 40-year-old businessman behind the firm, who goes only by the name of Graham, said it was a "celebration of women".

But last night Professor Nicole Westmarland, acting head of the Department of Sociology and director of Durham University’s Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse, said: “The male owner of this company calls it a celebration of women, but in fact many women would find this idea completely sexist at the very least, and extremely offensive at worst.

“My experience of working with women who have been sexually assaulted leaves me in no doubt that having a plastic doll made up in the image of a woman without her consent, will be considered a further violation and further impact the ongoing effects of sexual violence.”

Feminist campaigner Emma Chesworth, 46, from Stockton, said the idea is "the exact opposite of a celebration of women".

She said: “It reinforces the damaging concept that women’s bodies exist only for men’s use.

“It is a one way ‘relationship’ where women’s feelings and opinions can be disregarded.

“It is saying sex is something a man ‘does’ to a woman rather than a mutually pleasurable experience enjoyed by two people.”

Graham has said many of his customers are women who make purchases in a bid to keep their husbands from cheating.

He said sometimes his clients bring him photographs of their crushes for him to model a doll on.

He said: “In the future every celebrity could have a sex doll. It’ll be part of their merchandise.

“If men were not so enamoured with women they would not want to create dolls in their likeness.”

The company stocks an array of female dolls which can be chosen by body shape, breast size, and height and stocks a range of male dolls.

Graham provides a "try before you buy" service.

Customers can pay £100 to spend time with a plastic partner but it costs £2,000 to take one home.

He said: “I always knew that sex dolls were going to be normalised. You used to play with dolls as a child.

“These sex dolls are dolls. Maybe people just like that kind of thing.”