Yobs cause more pain for grieving families

Vandals and yobs have caused grieving families extra heartache with more than £100,000 of criminal damage reported at graveyards across the West Midlands in less than 12 months, it emerged today.

Figures obtained by the Express & star reveal that graves and buildings at West Midland cemeteries were targeted nine times between January and November, causing a total of £102,154 worth of damage. This is an rise of more than 600 per cent on the previous year, when £14,533 of damage was caused.

And dozens of reports of anti-social behaviour have flooded into West Midlands Police, including gangs gathering to drink, being abusive, littering and making hoax calls to emergency services.

West Midlands Police spokeswoman Helen Thompson said officers in each area worked with councils and churches to develop the best solutions to tackle the problem. "All instances of criminal damage are taken seriously and are thoroughly investigated," she added.

The biggest attack – which cost £30,000 to repair – took place at Thimblemill Cemetery in Smethwick in March. Around 40 memorials were kicked over and sma-shed as yobs hurled granite vases at headstones.

Police caught Jason Griffiths, aged 40, of Cowley Road in Oxford, and he was jailed for four years in May.

And in August, two boys went on a £3,000 rampage in a cemetery in Willenhall, pushing over 30 gravestones and upsetting families. The boys, aged 14 and nine, toppled gravestones at St Giles Church, in Walsall Street.

Last month, £150,000 of fencing was put up around Wood Green Cemetery in Sandwell after a series of vandal attacks.