Seven-year-old Bradley Lawton was running up and down the aisle putting his hands on freezers, when his parents Matthew and Amanda Lawton were approached by a employee who said they could not control their own son.
Talking about the incident, Mathew said: "I am absolutely furious. He wasn’t in a bad meltdown, but to be told you can’t control your son is disgraceful. I said to him 'you obviously don’t understand what autism is'."
However, the father wants to turn a negative experience into a positive one using the incident to highlight disability discrimination.
"I’m very passionate about the fact that awareness isn’t there and often it’s the older generation that frown or don’t understand. When you have someone in that job, you have to have an awareness about what you can and cant say. It’s discrimination. Because he doesn’t need a wheelchair, people sometimes don’t realise. I think we’re a little bit behind in this country," he said.
Upon contacting the store, the family received a £20 voucher.
In response to the incident, a spokesperson said: “We are unable to offer any further information or comment until we have completed a full investigation into the incident and the reasons for it. We will take any action that may be appropriate when we have seen the conclusions of this investigation.”
