That’s been the experience over and over again at the Albury cemetery for some years, as mindless graffiti scrawlers and equally stupid vandals continue to run amok.

It really is the height of cowardice committing such acts in the dead of the night, as is often the case.

As anyone who has paid for a bill for it – on top of funeral costs, –  it can be extremely expensive to erect a graveside memorial.

But at the very least once the money is paid and the work completed and installed, there shouldn’t be any need to spend any more.

Someone’s final resting place should, at the very least, be somewhere the person’s family or friends can visit in quiet contemplation of the memory of the person gone.

For anyone to wreak havoc in a cemetery then is contemptuous.

That is what has taken place at the Waugh Road cemetery in Albury, in an act described as a “shocking desecration of graves”.

Nine graves were attacked during a disgusting rampage that involved the smashing of glass panels on headstones.

Albury mayor Kevin Mack’s view of what took place was no doubt a feeling shared by most in that he was appalled.

The sad fact is this is not the first time such a disgraceful act has been perpetrated by these fools, nor is even a rarity.

And every time it happens, it causes a great deal of upset.

Albury’s Roland Sullivan summed it up best when he and his wife went to visit some graves at the cemetery: “How would these people feel,” he asked, “if someone did the same thing to their relative’s or friend’s grave?”

The trouble is these criminals don’t appear to think, let alone have any empathy for others.

That though won’t stop such attacks from happening again, from when some idiot – often just a teenager – gets drunk or high and reckons kicking in a few headstones would be a great lark.

That is why Cr Mack’s call for people to come forward with any information to police to catch the culprits is so important.

But of even greater significance is his revelation that the council would now investigate greater security for the cemetery.

This shouldn’t need to happen, but the council has been left with no other choice.