POLICE have charged a man with carrying out a wrecking spree at a Midland cemetery, which left families devastated.
Damage to scores of gravestones at Thimblemill Cemetery in Thimblemill Road, Smethwick will cost an estimated £100,000 to put right, according to police.
Officers swooped on an address in Reading in the early hours of Saturday morning and arrested a 40-year-old man.
They have charged him with criminal damage and he will today appear at Warley Magistrates court.
On Saturday the Birmingham Mail revealed how horrified relatives had travelled to the cemetery to see the damage for themselves, and to carry out repairs where possible.
Trudy Puta, 22, of Cape Hill revealed her late husband Chilunga’s headstone had been targeted: “I’m disgusted. Of all the places to come and do something like this, this is the worst.”
Ron Carter, 64, from Newtown, was there tending to the grave of his pal Brian Hanley, from Smethwick. Mr Carter said a whole horizontal marble piece which had covered the spot where Mr Hanley’s body lay had been pulled up and smashed.
He added: “Brian’s widow June couldn’t face coming up – she’s in tears.”
