diff --git a/autotest/ogr/data/prjwithutf8bom.dbf b/autotest/ogr/data/prjwithutf8bom.dbf
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8d550f629
Binary files /dev/null and b/autotest/ogr/data/prjwithutf8bom.dbf differ
diff --git a/autotest/ogr/data/prjwithutf8bom.prj b/autotest/ogr/data/prjwithutf8bom.prj
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..581fc21e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/autotest/ogr/data/prjwithutf8bom.prj
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+GEOGCS["GCS_North_American_1983",DATUM["D_North_American_1983",SPHEROID["GRS_1980",6378137.0,298.257222101]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0.0],UNIT["Degree",0.0174532925199433]]
diff --git a/autotest/ogr/data/prjwithutf8bom.shp b/autotest/ogr/data/prjwithutf8bom.shp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fb5ddad95
Binary files /dev/null and b/autotest/ogr/data/prjwithutf8bom.shp differ
diff --git a/autotest/ogr/data/prjwithutf8bom.shx b/autotest/ogr/data/prjwithutf8bom.shx
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..34c494324
Binary files /dev/null and b/autotest/ogr/data/prjwithutf8bom.shx differ
diff --git a/autotest/ogr/ogr_shape.py b/autotest/ogr/ogr_shape.py
index 75084c669..b4f1d1062 100755
--- a/autotest/ogr/ogr_shape.py
+++ b/autotest/ogr/ogr_shape.py
@@ -3699,6 +3699,19 @@ def ogr_shape_75():
 
     return 'success'
 
+###############################################################################
+# Test opening shapefile whose .prj has a UTF-8 BOM marker
+
+def ogr_shape_76():
+
+    ds = ogr.Open('data/prjwithutf8bom.shp')
+    lyr = ds.GetLayer(0)
+    sr = lyr.GetSpatialRef()
+    if sr.ExportToWkt().find('GEOGCS["GCS_North_American_1983"') != 0:
+        return 'failure'
+
+    return 'success'
+
 ###############################################################################
 # 
 
@@ -3810,6 +3823,7 @@ def ogr_shape_cleanup():
     ogr_shape_73,
     ogr_shape_74,
     ogr_shape_75,
+    ogr_shape_76,
     ogr_shape_cleanup ]
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
diff --git a/gdal/ogr/ogrsf_frmts/shape/ogrshapelayer.cpp b/gdal/ogr/ogrsf_frmts/shape/ogrshapelayer.cpp
index 3f95bc59f..4dbcfa81e 100644
--- a/gdal/ogr/ogrsf_frmts/shape/ogrshapelayer.cpp
+++ b/gdal/ogr/ogrsf_frmts/shape/ogrshapelayer.cpp
@@ -1824,6 +1824,14 @@ OGRSpatialReference *OGRShapeGeomFieldDefn::GetSpatialRef()
         osPrjFile = pszPrjFile;
 
         poSRS = new OGRSpatialReference();
+        /* Remove UTF-8 BOM if found */
+        /* http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/gdal-dev/2014-July/039527.html */
+        if( ((unsigned char)papszLines[0][0] == 0xEF) &&
+            ((unsigned char)papszLines[0][1] == 0xBB) &&
+            ((unsigned char)papszLines[0][2] == 0xBF) )
+        {
+            memmove(papszLines[0], papszLines[0] + 3, strlen(papszLines[0] + 3) + 1);
+        }
         if( poSRS->importFromESRI( papszLines ) != OGRERR_NONE )
         {
             delete poSRS;