CUSTOMERS in a Blackpool amusement arcade were horrified to find a boy's body behind a win-a-teddy machine.

Lee Harmon, 11, of Princess Court, South Shore, was found electrocuted late on Friday night (July 17) - nearly 36 hours after his father last saw him in the arcade in the Coral Island complex.

Robert Harmon had left Lee playing on the machines downstairs on Thursday lunchtime while he went upstairs, arranging to meet him later to go ten-pin bowling.

When the boy failed to show up, Mr Harmon reported him missing and police mounted a search and poster campaign.

But it was not until 11.30pm the following day (July 18) that Lee was found - still in the Oasis arcade - one of the busiest on Blackpool seafront.

Blackpool coroner Samuel Lee opened an inquest into Lee's death on Tuesday.

Coroner's officer Pc Eddie Smith told him that customers, picking up spilled change behind the win-a-teddy machine, discovered the body.

The inquest was adjourned until the results of a Blackpool Council and Health and Safety Executive investigation are known.

Lee had lived with his father during the week and his mother, Joyce Scott, of Drakelowe Avenue, Marton, at the weekends.

The devastated parents are now arranging a funeral for Lee, whom they described as a generous, loving boy, popular with his friends at Highfield High School.

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