A FAMILY say items were stolen from their daughter’s grave in York.

Robert Williams and his wife Isabell lost their daughter Tracy Ann Rae to cervical cancer 14 years ago when she was just 37-years-old, and visit her grave at Dringhouses Cemetery regularly from their home in Brayton.

Mr Williams said: “She was a lovely girl. She was our first born and it was very upsetting when she went at that age.

“We go up to the cemetery whenever we can, at least every three weeks. It was her birthday on November 23, and we always try to go up on her birthday and at Christmas.”

Mr Williams said he and his wife often leave fresh flowers and other small items or mementoes, and one of the items which had been there for years was a red metal jug they used to hold flowers.

However, when they returned to their daughter’s grave last week, the jug, and another small ornament had been removed from the grave.

He said: “You couldn’t really miss the jug, it was about a foot tall and red. We had a good look around but it wasn’t as if it could blow away, it was quite heavy and full of water with flowers in it. It’s nothing of great value, but it’s sentimental and upsetting to think someone has done that.”

Mr Williams said he spoke to staff at the cemetery who apologised, but he accepted “there’s not much you could do”.

However, he said he urged visitors to “please respect where you are”, and he had a message to whoever took the items.

He said: “We’re not going to stop leaving things we shall replace what’s gone and hope it doesn’t happen again to us or anybody else. There’s not a lot you can do with it but you shouldn’t have to put up with it. Hopefully it will provoke some regret from someone, coming up to Christmas especially.”