A regional daily columnist has recalled accidentally publishing a picture in the newspaper of Pete Burns wearing a tie depicting a gay orgy.

Gary Bainbridge, who writes for the Liverpool Echo, has shared his memory of the incident following the Dead or Alive singer’s death on Sunday.

Gary says the incident happened after interviewing Burns, who hailed from the Wirral, over the phone around 12 years ago.

He was then sent a photo of the vocalist by his publicist.

On his personal blog, Gary wrote: “It was quite a restrained look for Pete. He was wearing a suit and patterned tie, and he had short hair.

“The suit, though, was purple, and his hair was green, and his lips were pink. He basically looked like The Joker. You can see a cropped version of it at the top of this blog entry.

“Still, it was a decent picture, and I used it well, even if I do say so myself. I am a newspaper designer by trade, and it was my job to lay out the spread.

“I did a cutout of Pete’s torso, and ran the text around it, and it looked jolly good.”

A cropped version of the photo published in the Echo, minus the offending article of clothing.

The picture appeared in that Friday’s Echo, but Gary was called into his editor’s office on the following Monday to explain why he had used the photo he did, after the newspaper received dozens of complaints from readers.

Gary added: “I made some noises about homophobia, and said that we, as a modern newspaper, should be treating…

“‘No’, said the editor, ‘I’m talking about the tie.’

“‘Oh,’ I said. I peered at Pete’s patterned tie. ‘Oh,’ I said.

“The pattern was not apparent in the black and white proofs of the pages which I had checked and had been checked by others, nor was it apparent on screen as the pages were laid out.

“Only when it was printed on a colour page did it become clear – abundantly so – that it was not a pattern at all. It was an anatomically correct line-drawing of a eye-wateringly enthusiastic gay orgy. Cheers, Pete.”