Albury Council will look into security measures such as CCTV to curb vandalism at the Pioneer Cemetery, with nine headstones damaged in the latest attack.
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Between 2.30pm on Sunday and 8.30am on Monday, unknown offenders smashed the headstones, which are not connected to any known family members.
Albury Superintendent Evan Quarmby “didn’t have any words” to describe the callousness of the crime.
“This is a despicable act; some of those graves have stood there for over 150 years and it’s just disgraceful people have damaged them,” he said.
“These are the sorts of people who just don’t care about the community they live in and the history that made Albury a great community.
“Quite frankly, I want to catch them and put them before the courts.”
Albury Mayor Kevin Mack echoed Superintendent Quarmby’s disgust, labelling it a “hate crime”.
“It’s the lowest of the low; I don’t get how any person gets their jollies out of smashing gravesites,” he said.
“It’s a historical location and schools spend a lot of time in there educating kids on the importance of history.
“There’s a number of stones that have been damaged over the years.”
In August, five teenagers were arrested by Albury police after smashing concrete and up to 100 graves were vandalised in 2008.
As family members are responsible for upkeep of headstones, the damaged sites will not be repaired fully by council.
Cr Mack said it was time council considered security measures for the David Street cemetery.
“This is an ongoing issue; maybe we need to bring in some cameras to do something proactive and provide police with the evidence to bring someone to court,” he said.
“I think there’s room in the budget to put some resources in there to manage this issue.
“What they’re doing here is evil – we need to do something about it and we’ll be looking at it in the near future.”
Anyone with information is urged to contact Albury police (02) 6023 9299 or Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000.