Precious family heirlooms and exhibitions are being placed at risk by poor security at a museum, it has been claimed.

David Martin, 55, of Hilltop Court, Dovercourt, fears his father's medals and uniform from his days in the Royal Navy are in danger of being stolen after they were placed in the Maritime Museum, Dovercourt.

The Harwich Society, which runs the site at St Helen's Green with volunteers, has denied the claim and said any problem is down to a misunderstanding.

But Mr Martin remains insistent and wants his late father's goods returned as soon as possible.

He said: "They are very important to me. I am proud of my father and his achievements and I don't think his things are being looked after. Something needs to be done at the museum."

Mr Martin said he took his father's uniform, medals and other war memorabilia to the museum last June because they were "gathering dust" at home.

But he said he expected them to be properly looked after and supervised in their new home.

He returned to the museum this year to find the items were unsupervised and, he thought, easy to steal.

He said: "I could have been anyone and I was completely unsupervised. It is appalling - I want it returned and better arrangements in the future."

The society has told Mr Martin his father's wartime medals are being restored and after appeals to the society for their return he has still not seen them.

Society secretary Andy Rutter denied there were problems at the museum and said: "We do take what we think are reasonable precautions. Mr Martin looked rather harder than we would normally expect people to."

The box containing Mr Martin's things were behind a curtain on a shelf in an area not normally open to the public.

Mr Rutter added: "The curators of the museum are sick and I would not normally bother them with an inquiry like this."

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