A seemingly innocent gesture of handmade paper hedgehogs meant to raise money for charity has sparked outrage after parents discovered the creations were made from the pages of an erotic novel.
Disturbing Discovery
Linda Fortune, whose four-year-old granddaughter received one of the hedgehogs, described the content as “adult content. Pure sexual stuff.” After sharing her experience on social media, at least seven other families reported similar findings.
Jemma Ashby told the Wirral Globe that she was shopping at a Tesco in Merseyside with her 10-year-old daughter when a man offered them a hedgehog. “I thought it was a lovely gesture,” she said, placing it on her daughter’s windowsill. Later, she saw a Facebook post about the source material and was “disgusted.” She retrieved the hedgehog and found a page mentioning a legal age and another about a murder. “I took it out of her room straight away and hid it,” she added.
Police Involvement
Some parents reported the matter to Merseyside police. Officers spoke to the man, who said he normally checked the pages before use and was mortified by the mistake. Police confirmed on Monday that they were “happy there was no malice involved and no offences have been committed.” A spokesperson added: “The hedgehogs were created in good faith by the individual and have been used to raise money for a local charity.”
Source Material Identified
Some hedgehogs appear to have been made from Nicholson Baker’s 1994 erotic novel The Fermata, with at least one containing sexually explicit passages. Others, however, were made from innocuous books like Rosemary Enright’s The Walled Garden.
Despite the controversy, some recipients defended the maker. One woman said her four-year-old was “absolutely obsessed” with her hedgehog, calling the incident an “oversight” with no malicious intent. Another man commented on the Wirral Globe story: “Who’s the old guy making them? I want one. It would be especially fun if it was made from an erotic novel. If anyone knows him, tell him I’ll pay postage.”
The hedgehogs were distributed in local shops to raise funds for charity, but the incident has raised questions about oversight in charitable crafting efforts.
