Anger after 'disgusting' mums deface World War One Memorial - in front of children
Two mums have been criticised for defacing a newly-laid World War One memorial.
The pair were caught vandalising the bench as two youngsters, thought to be their children, watch on.
The woman scraped ‘Shell’ and ‘Jane’ into the wet cement beneath a memorial bench in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, even though the area was cordoned off.
Locals have branded them ‘disrespectful,’ an ‘absolute disgrace’ and ‘disgusting’ on a local community page on Facebook.
The bench was only installed in the middle of last month.
It is though the women sribbled their names into the concrete the day after the bench was installed.
The back of the metal bench shows soldiers and a warhorse silhouetted next to poppies, and the immortal words: ‘Lest we forget.’
The incident came to the public’s attention when the damage was posted by a Facebook user on the Horncastle Community Page.
One local, Julie Goy, responded: ‘I walked past this bench earlier, 12.15 today with my granddaughter who is nearly two and we stood and admired it, she liked the red poppies. It was fine then and no damage.’
She added: ‘What a dreadful shame, should be ashamed of themselves.’
Others on the Facebook page said the women were bad role models for their children.
One, Jayne Grieg, wrote: ‘Those children have no hope.’
Sophie Nisbet added: ‘Actually disgusting, what an example she’s setting to her kids.’
Willa Jamieson commented: ‘Encouraging little kids to commit vandalism! Wow, hang your heads whoever you are.’
A Lincolnshire Police spokeswoman said: ‘One woman has been voluntarily interviewed in connection with the matter. There have been no arrests or charges.’
The mayor of Horncastle, Brian Burbidge, said he was ‘deeply saddened’ by the incident.
