Butcher's 'I'm not gay' signs

A butcher went to extreme measures to deny rumours that he had taken a male lover – putting up two large signs in his shop reading "I'm not gay" .

Brian Fields, 43, scotched rumours in the village of Anlaby, near Hessle, East Yorkshire, after his seven-year-old daughter asked him where she would live after the divorce. According to local rumour, he had apparently abandoned his wife, Joanne, and their three young children, and "come out".

Mr Fields, who owns Fields of Anlaby butchers , and has been married to Joanne, 40, for 13 years, said: "We are happily married and this is just idle gossip, but once it started affecting my children, I had to take drastic action.

"I worry about them [the children] getting bullied at the school as children can be nasty."

Mr Fields said he does not know how the rumour began, but added: "I have a successful business [and] a lovely family. I can only imagine whoever started this is jealous."