HEARTLESS thugs who vandalised the '1.7million memorial for Harold Shipman's murder victims have made life easier for police . . . by spraying their names around the garden.
They could also have been caught on CCTV cameras.
As reported in later editions of yesterday's Manchester Evening News, vandals smashed flagstones and daubed yellow graffiti at Hyde's Garden of Tranquillity.
The vandalism has delayed the project and council leaders fear the opening, planned for the end of July, could now be at risk.
Councillors say police have already recognised some of the individual graffiti signatures.
Coun Joe Kitchen, deputy leader of Tameside council whose mother Alice was one of Shipman's murder victims, said: "We have an idea already who the individuals are and we are appealing to the public, if they recognise any of the names to get in touch with Tameside council or Greater Manchester Police."
The names, in yellow paint, appear to be Ruhul, Nurodin, Altor, Ashif, Bob and Holly.
Coun Kitchen said: "This is going to delay us for a few days. We are going to have to carry out some work on the entrance to the garden which we weren't planning to do at this stage."
He said he believed those responsible, although they would have realised who the park was for, were not specifically targeting Shipman's victims.
"It's just mindless vandalism. I would be very surprised if they had targeted the garden for a particular reason.
"When I found out, I was absolutely horrified. We were up here with the trustees looking at the progress. We were shocked at what we found and the amount of vandalism.
"There's a new fence around the garden and obviously we are going to have to take another look at security. We are going to look at putting CCTV cameras in to observe the area. We do have some at the moment and we will have to take a look at some of the images."
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CCTV?? Names?? You cant prosecute them on that evidence can you?? Even if the police did catch the mindless yobs who did this, took them to court, all they would get(I bet) is a slap on the wrist.
Make them rebuild it and clean it up, then hit them hard with a big fine, ie B#1000 for starters. Make an example of them, that way it would make other 'yobs' 'idiots' 'muppets' think twice.
Too soft this country.
These mindless idiots have no respect for anyone or anything. They should be found and made to clean up the graffitti/vandalism they were responsible for doing. They should be made to apologise very publicly to the bereaved families and then given community service to maintain and clean the site they vandalised. Also fine their parents to cover the cost of the damage their children were responsible for. Maybe then they would learn to respect other people and the environment they live in.