Finding a bush full of poo-covered wet wipes in Richmond Park has put a Surbiton man off his litter picking campaign.

Nick Booth planned to collect litter for an hour a day while out walking his dog.

But the sight that greeted him on his first outing "made him gag".

He said: "I started [my campaign on Tuesday], but I had to gag at this spectacle. When I went to pick up these abandoned wet wipes, they had poo on them.

"Good grief. What’s wrong with these people?

"I bet if you challenged them, they’d play the new parent card. I was a new parent once, but even I managed not to poo in the park and I’m hopeless.

"To quote The Simpsons, 'Oh please, won’t someone think of the children?' "

Conservation charity Friends of Richmond Park last week warned that litter was harming the park's famous deer.

Trustee Richard Gray said that gel packets left by Ride London cyclist could be ingested by the animals who will "eat anything."

He said: “Deer eat anything and it gets caught up in their guts.

“They swallow the plastic and if they eat enough it can stop them digesting other food."