Some parents in the UK were left “horrified” after discovering handmade paper hedgehogs given to their kids had been made using pages from an erotic novel, prompting a police investigation.
The paper hedgehogs had been distributed by a man who made them from donated books to raise money for charity before several families realised some contained explicit passages.
Parents discover explicit passages inside paper hedgehogs
The incident came to light after one of the parents, Linda Fortune, said her four-year-old granddaughter received one of the paper hedgehogs.
According to The Guardian, Fortune described the pages inside as containing “adult content” and “pure sexual stuff.” After warning other parents on social media, she said at least seven other families contacted her to say they had also received hedgehogs made from explicit pages.
Another parent, Jemma Ashby, told the Wirral Globe she accepted one of the hedgehogs while shopping with her 10-year-old daughter at a grocery store after a man approached them carrying a bag full of the handmade creations.
Wirral Globe/Linda Fortune Some parents discovered the hedgehogs contained pages taken from erotic novels.
Ashby said she initially thought it was “a lovely gesture” before later checking the hedgehog after seeing Fortune’s Facebook warning.
“I ran upstairs and grabbed [the hedgehog]. I grabbed a middle page and it said something about being a legal age, and then another page saying about someone’s sister being murdered. I took it out of her room straight away and hid it,” she said.
According to the reports, some of the hedgehogs had been made using pages from The Fermata, a 1994 erotic novel by Nicholson Baker. Some parents reported the incident to Merseyside Police, who later spoke to the man responsible.
The force said officers 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.” According to police, the man said he normally checked the pages before using them.
Not every hedgehog handed out contained erotic content. In response to Wirral Globe’s story, a user on Facebook said they had received one of the hedgehogs, and it contained “nothing inappropriate in it.”
icecoffeedripss on July 7th, 2026 at 16:12 UTC »
it’s ok, kids can’t read anymore
ghoostimage on July 7th, 2026 at 15:12 UTC »
it was probably a recycled book picked up from a library sale or from a free pile without any concern for the content.
Wellslapmesilly on July 7th, 2026 at 15:00 UTC »
Good grief I highly doubt a four year old would be perusing the pages of the book. People have too much time on their hands.