A VANDAL is increasing the heartache of a murder victim's grieving mother.

The unseen wrecker is targeting five-year-old sex victim Margaret Lowther's grave in a cemetery at Stockton, Teesside.

The attacks started the day after what would have been her 19th birthday, and have continued since.

"They have smashed the flower vases, taken the flowers out and thrown them about," said heartbroken Carol Lowther.

John Johnston, who was jailed in 1989 for Margaret's rape and murder, appeals for his freedom before a meeting of the parole board at Magheraberry Prison, Belfast, today.

Sentencing him, Judge Sir Sanderson Temple described the killing as "revolting, appalling in the extreme and abominable".

Margaret had been suffocated in a pool of mud while Johnston, then 17 and her first cousin, raped her.

Mrs Lowther has presented a 3,000-name petition to Prime Minister Tony Blair appealing against Johnston's release and mounted a solo protest demonstration outside the Belfast jail.

She said: "I can't sleep nights now, but if he gets out I am going to be looking out every window, front and back, too frightened to go out. I have got my other children to worry about if this animal is released."