Youths in cemetery told they could face prison

PC Chris Horner, Firthmoor's beat officer, told a community safety meeting on the estate that he had hidden in East Cemetery to frighten teenagers who were drinking alcohol there.

"One night, I heard what was going on," he said. "I thought I'm going to scare the living daylights out of these kids. They were in the graveyard and they were drinking.

"It's against the law because it's classed as causing a annoyance."

He told the youths that they could be imprisoned if they were convicted of causing a nuisance in the cemetery.

"I told them if you get drunk in a graveyard, you are going to cause either damage or a nuisance to people around that area who actually have loved ones buried there.

"Some of them were reacting to that, but some of them were not."

In recent months, community wardens have reported youths have been getting drunk, taking drugs and urinating on gravestones.

Residents whose homes back onto the cemetery had wanted the gates to be locked at night, but PC Horner said the youths had other ways of getting in.

Meeting chairman Councillor Lee Vasey said the youths' behaviour was criminal, not anti-social, and should be treated as such.