A DAD was horrified to discover a sewing needle in a chicken breast he bought for his three young children to have for dinner.

Richard Ward, from Droylsden, said that his children could have been seriously hurt by the needle, which he came across by chance.

Richard, aged 37, had barbecued the chicken, which came from Gabbots Farm Meat Mart in Droylsden, and was preparing to serve it when he made the discovery.

"I had cooked the chicken and tried cutting it to check that it was cooked thoroughly, but the knife wouldn’t go through," he said.

"I ripped the chicken open to find a sewing needle in the middle of it. We just can’t imagine how it got in there – we’re guessing that someone put it there. It’s a worry, because I have a five-year-old, a four-year-old and a 15-month-old, Abigail, who is still on finger food. She will eat anything that is put in front of her and she would have put it in her mouth. She has even eaten a spider before now. We are still fuming.  After we found the needle, we telephoned the Meat Mart and the health authorities and they have been here to pick it up. They said that they were going to take the needle to analyse it and then go to inspect the factory where it came from."

Richard, a baker, and his partner have reported the case to local authority environmental health officials and are considering taking Gabbots Farm to court.

Chris Coote, area manager for the butchers’ chain, said they were co-operating fully with environmental health officers and were determined to get to the bottom of it.

Mr Coote said: "The product itself comes from a third party and we just put our label on it. Obviously we want to find out what has happened and track it back to the source."