Horrified Dagenham nan finds knife in baby’s towels
Siobhan Patten, 26, with Joey Lyme, age 8 weeks. Her mum, Wendy, found a Stanley knife while trying to bathe him - Credit: Archant
A teacher has told of her horror after workmen left a Stanley knife between towels that she was about to use to bathe her six-week-old grandson.
The Stanley blade left in some towels - Credit: Archant
Wendy Patten says the blade “fell out” of the towels just days after council contractors Mulalley left another knife on her landing while installing her new bathroom at her home on the Becontree Heath Estate, Dagenham.
She says the apology she has received is not enough and wants assurance that measures have been put in place to stop it happening again.
“It was horrific,” she said. “I had just come home from school and went upstairs to bathe my grandson.
“There were some wet towels. I lifted them off the floor, when I normally would kneel on them, and the Stanley blade fell out onto the floor.”
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Joey’s mum, Siobhan, 26, was also left shaken by the incident.
“When my mum told me what had happened I was horrified and really scared,” she said.
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“I dread to think what would have happened if she hadn’t seen it and she had picked him up in it.”
After Wendy complained to Mulalley she spoke to the company’s health and safety officer and was visited by a representative who tried to assuage her concerns, telling her that staff would receive a “toolbox talk” to remind them of the importance of putting their tools away.
“There was an apology but that was all it was,” Wendy said. “It is not as if it was a one-off, although a one-off is bad enough.
“I have other grandchildren who run around the house, so it very fortunate that it was an adult that picked up the towels.”
A spokesman for Mullahey said they had no comment to make as the matter is under investigation.
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