A father-of-two was left “horrified” when a metal crowbar fell from the ceiling of a swimming pool’s changing rooms - missing his son by just inches.

Stay-at-home dad Lee Stanger felt shocked and shaken after his 16-month-old son Dexter escaped serious injury by just seconds when the spiked tool fell from above in the family changing rooms at Braintree Swimming Centre, in Charter Way.

Mr Stanger, of Porters Field, Braintree, was walking Dexter and his daughter Daisy, four, into the changing rooms at about 9am last Wednesday, when he heard a large crash just behind him.

He said: “We went round the corner and there was this crash and I turned round and it had dropped down right behind us, it was about a foot away - it nearly hit my son."

See this week's Braintree and Witham Times for the full story.