Thieves steal fence around dad’s grave

A WOMAN has told how she has been left stunned and saddened after her father’s grave was disturbed by vandals for the second time in just over a year.

Kathleen Smith, 34, said she visited the resting place of her dad, Raymond Brown, on Wednesday and discovered that the small white fence she had placed around it had gone.

The mother-of-one said the ornamental fence, which she bought in B&Q, had been put at the grave in Blaeberryhill Cemetery, Whitburn, in January last year after the wooden fence that was previously there was smashed by vandals.

She said the gravestone itself had not been disturbed or defaced and that none of the flowers beside it were taken.

Ms Smith, who lives with her six-year-old son in Armadale, West Lothian, said: “I’m still hurting, I feel destroyed. I think it’s terrible that anybody would want to pinch belongings from other people’s graves and leave them heartbroken like this.

“I think the people who did this should be really punished. I would like to get them and give them a good hard shake to let them know how it feels.”

She added: “I was very close to my father. We did things together – we went on walks together. We had a good relationship. When he passed away it hit me really hard – I could tell my dad anything.

“I have hardly been out the house since this happened because I can’t stop thinking about it. Last night I couldn’t sleep thinking about it.”

Mr Brown died from a heart attack aged 56 in December 2003, and his daughter said she was now considering moving her father’s gravestone from the cemetery.

“I might move it to the house and do something with it there,” she said.

“I think I would put a little wall round it in the back garden with angels and flowers and stuff round it because that way I would know it was safe.”

Police said the fence was taken some time between Monday and Wednesday afternoon, and are appealing to members of the public with any information to come forward to help identify the thieves.

A police spokesman said: “We are appealing for anyone who may have seen people acting suspiciously in the cemetery in Blaeberryhill at the start of the week to come forward. Anyone with any information should contact us on 0131-311 3131.”