A GRIEVING woman has been left devastated by thieves who desecrated her mother’s grave, only days after she had been buried.

Audrey Walker, 60, was horrified to discover that three wreaths the family put on the grave of her mother, who was buried on Friday, had been stolen and placed on another grave in East Cemetery, in Darlington, while other floral tributes had been destroyed.

The vandals struck over the weekend, only hours after Mrs Walker’s mother, Irene Edna Price, was buried. Mrs Price, known to friends and family as Rene, died on Saturday, April 25.

Mrs Walker discovered the damage when she visited the grave with her husband, John, and 36-year-old son Anthony.

She warned other bereaved relatives to check love one’s graves for signs of vandalism.

“It is totally devastating,” she said.

“I wouldn’t want it to happen to anyone else.

“We are still very, very upset over losing mum, so to get there and see the state of it, with some wreaths missing, some partially destroyed and just thrown down was horrendous.”

Among the tributes destroyed or stolen were flowers from close relatives.

“It just makes it all the more heartbreaking,”

she added.

Mrs Walker, who is from the Yarm Road area of Darlington, said she had called the police, who told her they would look into the matter.

She urged anyone who had experienced anything similar or seen anything suspicious in the Geneva Roadbased cemetery to contact the police.

“We just don’t want it to happen to anyone else,” she said.

“If anyone knows who has done this, I would ask them to tell the police.”

Inspector Paul Phillips, from Darlington police, said his officers took incidents like this extremely seriously because of the devastating effect they had on grieving relatives.

“We are aware of the incident. We do not know of any other incidents like this in East Cemetery but, if anyone has had problems, or has any information, I would urge them to come forward,” he said.

“We take incidents like this very seriously. They are very traumatic for bereaved family members.”

Anyone who has information about the incident, or any similar, is asked to call police on 0345-60-60-365.