A FATHER has cried foul after discovering some winning poems in the Essex Young Poet of the Year competition were ripped off.

Lewis Lovejoy’s daughter entered the competition, but was pipped at the post in one of the categories.

On the way home from the awards ceremony, Mr Lovejoy’s daughter, who attends Colchester County High School for Girls, told her dad she recognised some of the competition’s winning poems.

So when he got home to Brightlingsea, Mr Lovejoy, put a few lines of the suspicious poems into Google and found they had been taken straight from a poetry website.

Mr Lovejoy, 46, claimed one of the poems was taken directly from an internet site, entitled ‘How to write poems to win competitions’.

The judging committee has since apologised and vowedmeasures will be put in place to stop plagiarism in the future.

Mr Lovejoy said: “I was dismayed when we found out, so we contacted the judging panel.

“I don’t normally get involved in things like this, but I feel it is really unfair on all the young poets who worked hard and didn’t cheat.

The IT worker added universities regularly use anti-plagiarism software to spot copies and was “shocked” neither the entrants’ schools nor the judging panel made use of the computer programmes.

In a response to Mr Lovejoy, an Essex Young Poet of the Year spokesman said: “As judges of the competition, we are saddened to discover the level of plagiarism you have noted.

“It is unfortunate to see such blatant undermining of another human being’s endeavour.”

The spokesman said each poem is submitted through the individual child’s school and teachers had not sifted through the entries “sufficiently vigorously”, adding: “Perhaps, as judges, we too have been guilty of attributing a little too much trust in our processes.”

Renewed checks will be put in place for this year’s competition, including reminding schools of their obligations and double checking winners’ work before they are announced.