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A distasteful collage has sparked outrage after it mysteriously ended up in a charity shop window in Peterborough, nestled next to the Christmas tree.

The work, emblazoned with the words "30 Reasons Why A Beer Is Better Than A Woman" (sic), was discovered by horrified onlookers on Thursday (December 28), in the window of registered homeless charity UNITE 4 Humanity, on Broadway.

It features several crude cutouts pasted onto black board, including an image of a naked overweight woman straddling a bed, amid several bottles of stout and seven derogatory captions.

It is unclear how long the work remained in the window, but it went unnoticed for at least several hours before it was removed by staff, the manager confirmed.

Before it was removed it was snapped by horrified onlookers and an image of the scene then began circulating online.

It lead one reader to contact Cambridgeshire Live from Australia to say she was "bloody disgusted".

The woman who photographed the scene wished to remain anonymous, said: "As a woman seeing women depicted in that manner is awful.

"However or whoever you are, you should be free to be happy not poked fun at or degraded by comments as in the window display.

"I know men and women alike who have found this disgusting and not supporting of humanity at all."

What the charity shop says

The manager of UNITE 4 Humanity, Shaz Yousaf, 37, claims the artwork was placed there by a prankster and had gone unnoticed for so long because it was hidden in front of the Christmas tree display.

He said: "It looks like a member of the public put it in the window without anyone noticing. The display was hidden behind the Christmas tree.

"I guess they thought it was funny and wanted to share it but it isn't funny in any way. We can only apologise for something which slipped our attention.

"We have a massive window and a vast number of people in and out of the shop - we are a very active homeless charity and foodbank, it is a difficult situation."

"We will look into this and find out who put it on the shop window. "

He added he will look to tighten security and protocols around members of the public gaining access to the shopfront unsupervised.

For more information about UNITE 4 Humanity visit the website here.