Mother claims her son, 5, was strangled by fly curtain she bought from Amazon – as retail giant pulls the product from sale

• Justine Church, 42, from Strood, Kent, claims a fly curtain strangled her son
• Read More: TikTok is sued by parents of girls ‘who hanged themselves’

Amazon have removed a fly curtain from its website after a distraught mum claimed it strangled her five-year-old son.

Justine Church, 42, from Strood, Kent, ordered the item to keep the flies out of her back door, but her son Myles walked through it and became tangled so severely she believes the young boy now has whiplash and wounds that could scar.

The mum-of-five said Myles was rescued by his twin brother Darwin, adding ‘I could have been burying [Myles]’ if it wasn’t for his quick thinking.

Shopping giant Amazon has now removed the item while it investigates the incident, a spokesman for the US firm said.

She warned other customers have also reported being choked by the string door curtain.

Justine Church, 42, from Strood, Kent, revealed a fly curtain strangled her five-year-old son

In May this year, one person described it as a ‘death trap’ and wrote: ‘Your product was great until my husband walked outside to then get trapped around the neck by the strands and strangled him. Really not good and will take this further.’

Another posted: ‘Keeps the flies out. However had to take it down due to it getting caught round my 4yo daughters neck and causing friction burn, bad enough it scabbed over.

‘I’ve been tangled in these things before and never had anything like that. Wouldn’t recommend if you have children!’

Ms Church said her son was ‘traumatised’ after the incident and claimed there were no warnings on the packet, despite buyers flagging concerns.

In response to Ms Church’s report an Amazon spokesperson stated: ‘This product has been removed while we investigate.’

The mum said she was distraught when she returned from work and discovered what had happened.

She said her husband hadn’t heard much because he was upstairs vaccuuming.  

The mum-of-five said Myles was rescued by his twin brother Darwin, adding ‘I could have been burying [Myles]’ if it wasn’t for his quick thinking

Myles walked through the fly curtain and became tangled so severely she believes the young boy now has whiplash and wounds that could scar

Myles was left with red cuts around his neck after the fly curtain wrapped around him (pictured the day after the incident) 

Ms Church said her son was ‘traumatised’ after the incident and claimed there were no warnings on the packet, despite buyers flagging concerns

‘His twin brother Darwin managed to untangle him but now it basically looks like he’s got whiplash around his neck, it’s probably going to scar,’ she said. 

‘He was quite traumatised at the time and it was really sore because it’s like a burn.

‘When you’re looking online you know what you want, you know the size you want, you put it in your basket and you order it.

‘It arrived, and didn’t have any warning on the package but since then, I’ve Googled it and seen that it’s happened before.

‘When I looked at the reviews on Amazon, there’s so many people it’s happened to.’

She added ‘It’s that time of year where you need to be more conscious of things like paddling pools, blind cords, the windows being open – I’ve got five children so I’m fully aware of safety issues around children and my house is baby-proofed.

Myles also had wounds around the back of his neck (pictured the day he was strangled by the net)

Myles was pictured with his twin brother Darwin and their elder sister at their home in Kent 

‘We can’t supervise them all of the time so we’ve got window locks, a padlocked gate, and the blind cords are put up.

‘But when you’re buying a blind it’s slapped all over the box that there’s danger of choking – on this there was no warning at all.

‘On their advert, if you scroll right down to the bottom there’s a legal disclaimer that children must not go through it unsupervised but that’s not practical.

‘The disclaimer on the product is that this is not a toy and children should not walk through unsupervised.

‘How is that even practical that you have to supervise as a child walking through? Despite this adults have been strangled by it as well.

Stock image of a fly curtain, often used by homeowners to keep insects out. This is not the product bought from Amazon 

‘I think the product is unsafe and not fit for purpose. If they had a leaflet in the package stating in bold words strangulation risk I would never had put this in my home.’

After the incident she immediately took the curtain down and binned it.

‘I’ve left a review but I don’t want a refund, I just want people to be more aware because you don’t link a curtain like that to strangulation.

‘I’m quite happy with the flies flying round the house now – I’m just shocked at the amount of reviews online saying how bad they are.

‘If he hadn’t been untangled by his brother, I could have been burying him, it would have been a completely different story.’

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