Tasteless novelty T-shirts bearing a cartoon of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe have been taken off sale after its makers were bombarded with complaints.

The London makers of the T’only Way Is Yorkshire T-shirt, a take on the popular Essex life TV show, had put their decision to use an image of the mass Bradford killer down to “just a bit of dark humour”, as reported in Monday’s Telegraph & Argus.

But, after mounting pressure from outraged members of the public and the son of one of the Ripper’s victims, they have now done a U-turn and removed the shirt from their online shop to redesign it.

The move has been welcomed by Richard McCann, son of the Ripper’s first victim, Wilma McCann.

He told the Telegraph & Argus, which brought it to his attention: “I did speak to Peter Joyce from the T-shirt company and I asked my network to e-mail him requesting he withdraw the shirt.

“He’s had over 100 e-mails that I’ve been copied into from as far and wide as India and Africa.

“I think my comments and the obvious outrage from the public have pricked his conscience and he’s done the right thing.”

On the T-shirt, the image of Sutcliffe appeared alongside other well-known Yorkshire people or characters.

The shirt, made by Totally Original T-shirts, was branded “disgusting and outrageous” by senior Bradford councillor Dave Green, whose responsibilities include tourism.

He described it as “the most disgusting, exploitative piece of clothing” he had ever heard of.

He also called for the garment to be withdrawn and re-designed.

Coun Green said: “It’s good news if they have withdrawn it.

“Hopefully they are going to re-design it, take off Sutcliffe and replace him with someone supposedly humorous.”

Among the other well-known faces on the T-shirt, claimed by the makers to be a homage to all things that make Yorkshire great, are Keighley-born actress Mollie Sugden, Huddersfield-born former Prime Minister Harold Wilson in a flat cap, actress Diana Rigg in a cat suit and Last of the Summer Wine character Nora Batty.

Sutcliffe, a married lorry driver, of Heaton, Bradford, was convicted by an Old Bailey jury in 1981 of the murders of 13 women and the attempted murders of seven others during a reign of terror which started in the mid-1970s.

The T-shirt, sold on the Iffyton High Street website, is one of a whole Grim Up North range which, according to the manufacturer’s website, celebrates “the best of Northern style and humour”.

No one from TOT-Shirts was available for further comment.