A mother whose son was killed in Iraq has slammed heartless vandals for scrawling 'cowards' on a war memorial.
Rose Gentle, from Scotland, hit out at those responsible for defacing the monument in Duchess of Hamilton Park, in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire.
The mother found the desecration all the more painful because her 19-year-old son Gordon was killed by a roadside bomb while serving in Basra in 2004.
Criminals used a red marker to write “cowards”, “scum of the earth” and “rats” over the memorial in Motherwell, the Daily Record reports.
They even drew male genitalia on the monument, which is at the heart of the town’s Remembrance Day service every year.
It came days after the nation remembered the 75th anniversary of D-Day, when our Armed Forces stormed the Normandy beaches to fight Hitler on June 6, 1944.
Rose said on social media: “What is it with these people?
“No matter what you are or what you believe in, there is no need for this.”
Cammy MacLeod of veterans charity Who Dares Cares said: “It is outrageous. There seems to be a spate of these things happening.
“For someone to go out and do this days after the D-Day commemorations is an utter disgrace.”
Pictures of the damage triggered fury on social media. Jacqueline Lafferty said: “Disgusting and disrespectful.”
Nancy Willis added: “This is sickening. To think that these brave people have given their lives for the freedom these vandals now enjoy.
“Most people now have mobile phones and a photo would greatly help to identify these mindless morons. Respect and honour to our heroes.”
Rose Burnett said: “We never used to have this problem. You have to wonder what’s changed.”
The graffiti was cleaned off by volunteer Lainey McDougall of Lanarkshire War Graves.
In April, veterans were disgusted when two youths were caught trying to rip a Union flag down from the veterans’ memorial at Knightswood Cross in Glasgow.
A passer-by confronted the drunken pair before they ran off.
In February, a memorial in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow, to soldiers who fought in the Boer War was badly damaged by vandals with hammers.
North Lanarkshire Council said: “This disrespectful act can’t be tolerated.”
Police said the memorial was vandalised some time between Saturday and Monday and appealed for information.
