by Chris Hunter

It looks like an inoffensive child’s toy - but this little parrot is anything but.

Maidstone mum Kelly Ann Davies says she was shocked and disgusted when the parrot she bought as a toy for her eight-month-old daughter started swearing and squawking horrible obscenities at her.

The 23-year-old from Tonbridge Road, Maidstone, first saw the furry parrots on sale at 99p Stores in the Mall Chequers last month, and bought one for her nephew - five month-old Riley-James Manser.

She says she found the bird in the toy section of the store, and that the packaging was not marked with any warning about the parrot’s obscene nature.

"I didn’t see the button that makes it speak, and my nephew didn’t press it" she recalled, "I thought it was a good toy so I went back and bought one for my daughter."

It was only when she got the parrot home last Thursday that she found the button, pressed it, and unleashed a torrent of abuse in which the parrot told her to "sod off", screeched "up your bum" and threatened to cut her head off and defecate down her neck - along with several other obscene comments.

Listen to the parrot - note: swear words have been bleeped out

"It was absolutely disgusting" she said, "it’s totally inappropriate for my daughter. It was coming out with all these things and I thought ‘Oh my God’.

"It’s diabolical."

99p Stores have now apologised following the incident, and say the parrots - which have a label reading "adult" - are normally wrapped in packaging marked with "XXX" and other warnings.

Store manager Yeshwanth Gajagouni believed some of the parrots had been ripped out of their original packaging by curious customers and then re-wrapped in clear plastic wallets.

And he said customers might also have taken some of the swearing parrots out of the party section of the store and dumped them in the toy section.

Hussein Lalani, commercial director of the company, apologised for the incident but suggested the toy was clearly unsuitable for young children, with or without packaging.

"I certainly apologise if any offence has been caused to this lady" he said, "we don’t like to upset our customers."

But he added: "I wouldn’t give a five or eight-month-old child this toy - it’s got a wire sticking out of it. I don’t want to judge her but they could choke on the wire."

He said he had now issued a memo to all stores directing that the parrots are kept in the party section and not displayed without their packaging.