A THAMESMEAD man was given the fright of his life when he discovered the UK’s most venomous spider had joined him in bed.

Paul Lakeman, 29, initially thought his hair was brushing against his shoulder but soon realised it was a deadly two-inch long false widow spider.

The Steatoda noblis is also known as the biting spider and unleashes venom if provoked which can cause death for those allergic.

Glazer Mr Lakeman, who lives with his nephew and father in Longworth Close, disposed of the beast but now says: “I hope his friends don’t come back for him.”

He told News Shopper: “I was in bed with the light off.

“I have quite a lot of hair and it normally brushes on my shoulder and being a hot night I had the fan on.

“To begin with I thought it was my hair so instinctively I threw it off on to the floor.

“I heard the spider hit the floor and I looked at it - It looked like it meant business.”

Mr Lakeman says he then trapped the spider in a piece of tissue and went straight to Google, where he searched for more information about the distinctive spider, which has bright red legs.

One of the first searches took him to a News Shopper story from last August about the same spider being found nearby in Thamesmead.

He said: “I got everything out in the room - I’m a bit worried about it.

“We had a right look round and turned everything out.

“I normally wouldn’t bother but it really didn’t look like it was a standard spider.

“I have got a golf course at the back so that is probably an ideal location for them to live.”

Mr Lakeman says when he mentioned the spider in the pub, one of his friends asked him “did it have red legs?” before pulling out a picture he had taken of another false widow spider, taken a few days earlier.

Have you seen a false widow spider? Email your photos to the newsroom.