WHSmith sorry for Josef Fritzl Father's Day promotion

High street chain WH Smith apologised today after promoting a book on cellar rapist Josef Fritzl as a Father's Day gift.

Shoppers at the Lewisham branch were shocked to see a non-fiction book on the Austrian, who kept his daughter captive for 24 years, in a "Top 50 Books for Dad" display.

The book was positioned on a stand alongside popular titles including Dan Brown's Angels And Demons and Sebastian Faulks's Bond novel Devil May Care.

Matt James, 29, who spotted the the book, The Crimes of Josef Fritzl in the section said: "Are they mad? He's probably the worst dad in the world. What he did to his children was horrible."

Another, Rowena Langlois, 50, added: "It seems like some kind of sick joke. Has anyone in the company actually sat down and thought about this?"

A spokeswoman for WH Smith apologised saying it was "a mistake by one store".

She added: "It is not national policy. We will rectify this immediately."

It also emerged today that a Tesco store in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, had stocked the book among its Father's Day selection.

A spokesman said the title was placed there in error and had now been removed.