A mum was left furious after her daughter was pricked by a broken sewing needle she found inside her new slippers.

Samantha Capelhorne, from Eccles, had bought the slippers for her three-year-old as a surprise from Poundstretcher in nearby Aylesford.

But she got the shock of her life when her little girl put her new slippers on and started screaming in pain.

Samantha told KentOnline: “She started crying and saying they hurt. When I took them off and turned one of them inside out I found a broken machine needle inside the toe.

“I couldn’t believe it. The needle was actually inside the slipper and the thread was still threaded through the eye of the needle where it had bent and snapped in two.”

And the needle had drawn blood.

“I'm so angry as this could have caused a lot more damage than just a prick mark into my three year old’s toe causing it to bleed,” she said.

The 38-year-old immediately fired off a complaint to customer services at Poundstretcher in Aylesford, where she bought the slippers, and to the CEO of the company, but has heard nothing back.

She added: “I understand you buy cheap you get cheap products, but I expected them to get a hole or something in a couple of weeks, not for them to come with a hazardous needle inside.”

And the school administrator is questioning the quality checks she believes are clearly not taking place on these products.

“If the person making it realised the needle was broken and had to replace it why didn't they try to located the missing part of the broken needle before sending out the slippers to be sold for children to wear,” she said.

“Or, if it was done by a machine, surely there are some sort of quality checks happening?”

She added: “I am gobsmacked that a company would sell something like it in a product for children.”

A spokeswoman for Poundstretcher confirmed the case is currently under investigation.

She said: “At Poundstretcher, our customers’ health and safety come first and we have a full process in place to ensure our products are fully compliant and safe before they reach our shelves.”