Cardiff families have been experiencing theft and vandalism to graves at this cemetery for more than a decade
Ornaments, vases, flowers, stones, and fencing have all been stolen from graves at Western Cemetery(Image: Gaynor Rowley)
Families have expressed the devastation they feel as they visit their children’s graves to notice they have been targeted by vandals and thieves. A number of Cardiff families who visit their loved ones’ graves at Western Cemetery, claim that the gravestones are being stripped of placards, vases, flowers, photo frames, fencing, and stones.
They say it makes already emotional visits to see their late children, that bit harder – and they say it has been going on for months, if not years.
Gaynor Rowley, 62, buried her son Christopher Rowley at Western Cemetery in 2000 after he had lost his battle with muscular dystrophy, aged just 19 years old. Muscular dystrophy is an incurable and rare genetic condition that causes muscle weakness that gets worse over time, and shortens your life.
Christopher Rowley died aged 19(Image: Gaynor Rowley)
Gaynor said: “We go and visit him a lot, and make it look nice for him. For example, when we go on holiday we always bring something back for him to place on there.
“But it has come to a point where we can not do that anymore, because everything nice gets stolen. The police are aware but are too busy with all the other crime that they won’t do anything about it.
“They’ve taken everything from there. It is the lowest of the low.
“I go there to talk to him, to feel he is with me, which might sound crazy, but he is my son and he is still part of my family.
“To go there and see his grave has been vandalised is so upsetting. You see, if I was in a position where I was visiting with nothing, say I had no money or means to get anything for him, there is no way you would ever see me taking even one flower from anyone else’s.”
Unfortunately, Gaynor is not alone in this experience.
Hassan Jannah, 33, lost his six-year-old daughter in 2023 after her short fight with a brain tumour. Before her headstone was made, he decorated the grave to make it nice for her, and their family when visiting.
“When she first got buried there, I placed wooden fencing around the grave, some big rocks and a wind turbine, to make it nice and tidy before we had her headstone. The following week I went there, it was all gone,” Hassan said.
“When I phoned the cemetery, they said there had been a lot of theft happening lately and that there was nothing I can do.
“So I paid to re-do the fencing. I want it to be nice there as we visit her once a week and sometimes with her younger brother.
“I decorated it as it was before, just to come back one week later to see it’s all been messed up and stolen.
“It is sad, why would they do that? The stuff is not expensive, so I don’t understand how they could do it for the money.”
It appears this cemetery has been a target for vandals and thieves for more than a decade. In 2015, we reported incidents of the exact same nature, whereby distraught relatives hit out at “hurtful” thieves who stole ornaments from a grandmother’s grave in Cardiff.
We reported on an incident then in 2019, when a heartbroken mum said she feels forced to move her baby’s grave to another cemetery because of repeated vandalism and the theft of precious ornaments.
Cardiff Council insists that reports of thefts at this cemetery are not regular.
A spokesperson for Cardiff Council, said: “We have not had reports of regular thefts at Western Cemetery, but sadly we do see occurrences from time to time.
“We ask visitors to our cemeteries to treat the graves with respect.
“Families who experience theft from the graves of their loved ones are advised to report it to the police.”