A woman has been left "devastated" after heartless vandals trashed her parents' grave for the second time in a month.

Janine Harris' father and brother are laid to rest in Faversham Cemetery, and their grave has now also been made into a memorial garden in honour of her late mum.

But the 61-year-old was distraught to find the special site trashed twice in a matter of weeks - with flowers and sentimental items strewn on the floor - sparking calls for CCTV to be erected at the cemetery.

Mrs Harris' brother, who died as a baby more than 70 years ago, is buried at the hallowed ground in Love Lane.

When her father, Charles Fennell, died 40 years ago, his ashes were also interred in the grave.

"Then my mum passed away last November," said Mrs Harris. "So now it's a memorial garden for her too. It's our go-to place."

But while tending the grave in July, Mrs Harris, of Love Lane, was shocked to find it had been wrecked by vandals, while some sentimental items had been stolen.

"All the flowers has been taken and just thrown around," she said.

"We had a little plaque with my mum's name on, and a little white dove with 'mum' on it that my sister had taken from her wreath, and they had been just thrown too.

"My granddaughter had left a couple of little things she wanted her nana to have - a keyring and some other things - and they were totally gone.

"We cleared it up and put it down to mindless vandalism.

"One of my sisters was quite kind, and said if they took the flowers hopefully they'd taken them home to their mum as they needed them more."

But sadly, Mrs Harris returned to the grave on Friday to find it had again been trashed, with flowers and other items scattered across the ground.

"I just feel devastated," said the grandmother-of-four.

"We're still grieving for my mum and to find that in such a mess - it's quite upsetting.

"It just looked so desolate.

"I've tidied it up and made it nice again.

"I hope it doesn't happen again - we don't want to leave it with nothing on it, we still want it to look nice."

Mrs Harris took to Facebook to share the "totally heartbreaking" incident, and found other people have had similar experiences.

'I just feel devastated, it just looked so desolate...'

One mum commented: "This has happened before on my baby's grave, which is in the newer children's section. It's also had things stolen from it. It's very sad and upsetting for people. Sorry it's happening to you."

Mrs Harris suggested that locking the cemetery gates at night could help keep vandals at bay.

Meanwhile, councillor Ben J Martin has expressed his sympathies and says he will be calling for CCTV to be installed at the cemetery.

Backing the idea, Mrs Harris said: "It would keep an eye on things.

"I do understand there's not a lot for the kids of this town - I grew up here.

"But when they start damaging graves they're crossing the line. There's a big rec they could go to. They don't need to go to a peaceful space."

Mrs Harris says she is planning to contact the police about the incidents.

Swale Borough Council, which manages cemetery, says it condemns the vandalism but admits it is "very difficult" to keep troublemakers out of the site.

A spokesperson said: “Unfortunately, we do get this type of vandalism from time to time across all of our sites in the borough.

“We condemn this behaviour and recommend that anybody affected reports each incident to the police so it can be monitored.

“We do not lock the cemeteries to provide residents with a flexible approach to visiting the graves of their loved ones. Even if we did, given their open nature it would be very difficult to keep the vandals out.

“We are sorry this has happened to grieving families and will continue to monitor the situation.”

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