Mother disgusted as Black Country baby graves damaged
A grieving mother has spoken of her disgust after finding several graves at a baby cemetery had been damaged.
Jade Anderson visited the grave of her daughter at Tipton Cemetery after hearing from other mourners that graves had been "trashed".
She discovered that while her own daughter's grave had not been touched, several others were with gates broken around them and flowers destroyed.
However Sandwell Council, which runs the cemetery, believes that the damages was not the result of vandalism.
Ms Anderson, whose daughter died during labour at 22 weeks, said the incident had left her feeling sick and disgusted and posted a video of the damage on Facebook.
She said: "I was only there last week for her birthday and there was none of this carnage.
"It looked as if someone had trampled across each grave and these are baby graves not adults, so they are only very small.
"A lot of the others in the same row were damaged and it doesn't matter whether mine was vandalised or not, they shouldn't be vandalised at all."
A petition has been launched by parents of children buried at Tipton to get CCTV installed at the cemetery.
Councillor Wasim Ali, cabinet member for resources and core services at Sandwell Council, said the incident did not appear to be an act of vandalism but that he would be looking at rolling out CCTV for the cemetery.
He said: "We would like to assure families we do not think this was any form of vandalism on this occasion.
"However, we understand it is upsetting when items become displaced whatever the reason.
"Tipton Cemetery is an award-winning cemetery and our staff work tirelessly, none more so than at this difficult time to ensure the site is kept at a standard families would expect.
"To help offer further reassurance to families, the council has been rolling out CCTV across cemeteries and crematoria in Sandwell and we fully expect to have a system in operation at Tipton Cemetery in the coming months."
