Pornographic rhymes sent to shopper

The company insists security has not been breached

By BBC News Online's Robert Fielding

A supermarket chain has launched an investigation after one of its staff sent a female customer a collection of violent and pornographic nursery rhymes by e-mail.

Brid Fitzpatrick, who lives on Tyneside, had registered her details on Safeway's website in order to be told about products and special promotions.

She had been offered the chance to win a bottle of wine.

Ms Fitzpatrick told BBC News Online: "The e-mail struck me as odd because it had an individual's name on it.

They are so degrading and violent towards women

Brid Fitzpatrick

"I was appalled at the content, it is really obscene.

"As a feminist and a mother I am quite outraged by the nursery rhymes, because they are so degrading and violent towards women."

The e-mail was sent from a Safeway e-mail account and contained 10 nursery rhymes which had been re-written to make them violent and sexually explicit.

The rhymes included Hickory Dickory Dock, Old Mother Hubbard and Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.

Brid Fitzpatrick: "Quite outraged"

Ms Fitzpatrick said: "I have demanded that they remove my name from their mailing list."

Safeway has 90,000 employees and nearly 500 stores in the UK.

The stores attract about eight million shoppers every week.

Safeway spokeswoman Debbie Wickings said the member of staff involved worked at the head office, which is near Heathrow in Middlesex.

She stressed that his job was not in the IT department.

'Strict rules'

"The whole issue will be dealt with internally and we have strict disciplinary rules.

"We extend our sincere apologies to the customer, but there has been no breach of security.

"She was allocated an external e-mail number because she was registered on the website and its record of customers.

"The staff were told to remove external numbers six months ago and he may have overlooked that, or he was e-mailing the wrong number by mistake.

"Only the IT people have access to database information and he is not in IT. There has been no breach of security."

E-mail crackdown

Since the story was published on BBC News Online, Safeway has offered Ms Fitzpatrick a case of wine.

In April, the company's website has attracted almost 600,000 "hits".

The site informs users that the store intends to provide them with "the best customer care." Safeway has annual sales of about £9bn.

The incident is the latest in a series of examples of companies taking action against staff over the irregular use of e-mails.

In a high-profile case last December, a law firm in London disciplined five workers for forwarding a smutty e-mail sent by a woman to her boyfriend which was then circulated around the world.