A mother sent her five-year-old to his school nativity with a 'shepherd' costume she bought online, not realising it came with a sex doll.

Helen Cox bought son Alfie the £16.99 fancy dress costume on Amazon for his school nativity play and he was delighted it came with a free blow up flock.

But Ms Cox, 46, was puzzled when a teacher told Alfie to take the sheep home until she blew it up and found it had red lips, eyelashes and a huge hole in its bottom.

The mother-of-two later discovered the same inflatable being sold as a "stag night bonkin' sheep".

The Herald:

Ms Cox, a psychology student, from Alloa, Scotland, said: "I just can't believe it. I don't know whether to laugh or cry! How am I going to explain this to his teachers?

"I have no idea if they've seen it was a sex toy and that's why they sent it home - I'm mortified!"

The outfit, which she bought on Amazon in November, was listed as 'Labreeze kids boys brown shepherd costume inflatable sheep nativity fancy dress outfit'.

After checking the costume fit, Ms Cox packaged it up in a name-tagged bag for Alfie to take into school on November 26.

But when she went to pick Alfie up from school on December 6 - a week before the nativity - she noticed the sheep in his bag.

The Herald:

Ms Cox, a student at Stirling University, added: "I asked him, "why have you brought the sheep home Alfie?'

"It was part of his costume and I thought he might have been naughty and snuck it out of school.

"But he said the teacher had given him it to bring home, so I let it go."

When they got home, the mother suggested she blow the sheep up for her young Alfie to play with - then the penny dropped.

Without knowing how to get the doll back from her son, Ms Cox has now devised a plan to get the sheep back without any awkward explanation by telling Alfie the 'Elf of the Shelf' took it.