A 50-year-old man has been charged with a public order offence after he was seen at a pub wearing a T-shirt mocking the Hillsborough disaster.

Paul Grange, from Worcester, was charged by West Mercia police with displaying threatening and abusive writing likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

A police spokesman said Grange had been bailed to appear at Worcester magistrates court on a date in July.

The West Mercia force launched an inquiry on Sunday after a man was seen wearing a T-shirt suggesting the 1989 disaster, in which 96 Liverpool football fans died, was “God’s way of helping” a pest control firm.

Pictures were posted on social media of the man, who was asked to leave the Brewers Arms, in the St John’s area of Worcester, by the landlord.

Supt 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.”

In April, an inquest concluded the 96 fans were unlawfully killed.