Man charged over offensive T-shirt carrying Hillsborough slur

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A man has been charged with a public order offence after a pub-goer was thrown out of a pub in Worcester for wearing an offensive T-shirt that mocked the victims of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.

Police received reports of a man seen at the Brewers Arms pub in the St Johns area of Worcester on Sunday. The man was asked to leave The Brewers Arms by the pub landlord when staff were notified of message on his t-shirt that likened the death of 96 people to pest control.

The offensive line reportedly read: “Hillsborough. God’s way of helping Rentokil.”

Landlord Mark Daniels removed the man and barred him as soon as he was made aware of the t-shirt, but he claims to have received threatening calls since the incident, the Liverpool Echo reported.

Staff did not answer calls from The Independent but a message posted from the pub’s twitter account read: “This has devastated me and my family I didn’t print or buy or wear that disgusting shirt I removed him when alerted couldn’t do anymore gutted”. A later tweet read, “getting threatening calls and all sorts all I done was the right thing?”

Support for Mr Daniel’s actions has since flooded in on Twitter, with people praising the way he handled the situation and his actions. Members of the public have reportedly identified the man. According to The Mirror, some members of the public have ordered an eccentric list of items to be delivered to the man’s house, including four taxis, a 70-can crate of Lilt, a clown, a giant crane and nearly £2,000 worth of take-away.

A man, 50, was arrested on Monday and later charged with “displaying abusive writing... likely to cause distress”.

A police spokesman said the man had been bailed to appear at Worcester Magistrates' Court on a date in July.

Superintendent Kevin Purcell said: "I understand the alarm and distress the offensive language shown on this t-shirt will have caused to both the people in and around the pub and further afield.

"I would like to thank the landlord of the pub for his support and all the members of the public who were in the pub at the time and came forward to report it."