A Chinese factory has denied using forced labour after a message from a person claiming to be a prisoner was found in a pack of Tesco Christmas cards.
Florence Widdicombe, aged six, was writing cards to school friends last weekend when she found the note signed from "foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu prison in China".
The message said they were "forced to work against our will" and added: "Please help us and notify human rights organisation."
It also urged the finder to contact Peter Humphrey, who was held in the same prison between 2014 and 2015.
However, the factory in question has hit out at the claims, and told China's Global Times: "We only became aware of this when some foreign media contacted us. We have never done such a thing."
The statement, from Zhejiang Yunguang Printing, added: "Why did they include our company's name? Do they have any evidence that we have been working with any prison?"
China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang also rejected the claims.
He told a press briefing: "I can responsibly say, according to the relevant organs, Shanghai's Qingpu prison does not have this issue of foreign prisoners being forced to work."
After finding the message, Florence, from Tooting, south London, told reporters: "We didn't open [the cards] on the day that we got them, we opened them about a week ago.
"We were writing in them.
"About on my sixth or eighth card, somebody had already written in it."
Her father, Ben Widdicombe, said he felt "incredulity".
After initially thinking it was a prank, he explained: "On reflection, we realised it was actually potentially quite a serious thing, so I felt very shocked, but also a responsibility to pass it on to Peter Humphrey as the author asked me to do."
A Tesco spokeswoman previously told the PA news agency that the company was "shocked" and had shut down operations at the facility.
"We would never allow prison labour in our supply chain," she said.
