Bruce the stinky badger may well have been in need of a shower when he sneaked into Norman Duncan's bathroom.

Mr Duncan, an IT consultant, was working at home when he heard an unusual sound outside his office door yesterday morning.

When he went to investigate, he was confronted by a small badger who brazenly walked past him and into his home.

Mr Duncan, who has lived at his home in Southover High Street, Lewes, for two years, said: "I was working on my PC and the side door of the house was open. I could hear some padding noise outside.

"Before I could get outside it was inside. It just walked past me and straight into our shower room."

Like all badgers, Bruce suffered from a strong body odour and headed into the perfect room, the bathroom.

Mr Duncan closed the door on Bruce and telephoned his partner, Sue Evans, at work.

He said: "I sometimes wind her up so when I told her that there was a badger in our shower she said, 'What?'. I had to repeat it."

Mr Duncan then called in the help of wildlife expert Trevor Weeks, rescue co-ordinator of the East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service.

Mr Duncan, who comes from Glasgow and has never seen a badger before, said his partner popped home to get a look at the uninvited guest.

He said she loved wildlife and had paid to go on night-time badger watches in an attempt to see the usually elusive, nocturnal animals.

When Bruce realised his cover was blown he tried to scuttle under the shower unit, where a board was missing, but Trevor grabbed his rear end and wrapped him in a blanket.

Bruce was bundled into a cage and taken off to Meridian Vets in Peacehaven, where he was given antibiotics for some wounds which had become infested with maggots.

How Bruce came to be in Mr Duncan's home remains a mystery. The area is residential and Bruce appeared in broad daylight.

He must have either become trapped in Mr Duncan's courtyard at night or walked up Southover High Street in view of the public.

Mr Weeks is appealing for residents in the area to contact him with information about badger movements so a sett - a badger's home - can be pinpointed.

He said: "It's very unusual for a badger to come into someone's home."