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When Samantha Rawlins bought a Hello Kitty dictionary for her young daughter, she expected it to be an educational book filled with pictures of fluffy kittens.

So she was horrified to find it contained a graphic description of a so-called "necklace" murder.

Samantha, 27, bought the colourful book for nine-year-old Casey hoping it would help her with her writing and spelling.

She thought the pages would be full of cute animals – but then stumbled on the inappropriate content.

The first description said: “A piece of jewellery which a woman wears around her neck.”

But an alternative read: “In South Africa, a name for a tyre filled with petrol which is placed round a person’s neck and set on fire in order to kill that person.”

Mum-of-two Samantha, from Stockton, Co Durham, was flicking through the book with Casey and her best pal Demi Reed, seven. She said: “I couldn’t believe it. The book is full of cute little pictures of kittens, mice, love hearts and flowers.

(Image: NB Press)

“Then you come across this awful description of murder. What sort of thing is that for little girls to read?

“I’m glad I spotted it before they did, how would I explain that to a child?”

The Hello Kitty dictionary, published by Harper Collins, is priced at £9.99 and carries more than 7,000 words with clear and simple explanations.

On the back it claims to help kids with homework, learning key words for school, giving advice on grammar, spelling, punctuation and pronunciation and improve their confidence in speaking and writing.

Samantha said: “Hello Kitty is aimed at little girls with all the cute, cuddly animals and things. I didn’t think for a moment there would be anything like this in there.

“I know technically the description for necklace is right, but detailing horrific ways to kill people really isn’t appropriate, especially not for little children.

“Kids may need to learn about the world, but not at that age and not in a Hello Kitty book that is clearly targeted at little ones.”

The description of the dictionary on Amazon states: “This is a school dictionary with a difference: it’s big, bling and very Hello Kitty! Cupcakes and rainbows, bumblebees and, of course, Hello Kitty and her friends decorate every page.”

They recommend the book for children aged 11 and up. Samantha said: “Something has gone seriously wrong here.

Fancy putting something that vile into a children’s book.”

A spokesman for Harper Collins said they had been made aware of “inappropriate content” in the Hello Kitty dictionary and as a result had withdrawn it from sale and pulped all copies. They said: “As soon as we realised there was inappropriate content, it was withdrawn for sale.

“It was available in three forms and all have been pulped. It is no longer available from Harper Collins. If any are still around they are old copies being resold.”