A SHOCKED West Norfolk pensioner yesterday hit at out the "lunatic" who dug up his mother's grave in a Lynn cemetery.

He cannot conceive why anyone would have desecrated her grave in such a way and is appealing for help to find those responsible. Mr Gamble made the horrifying discovery last Monday morning when he arrived with his wife to lay some flowers on his mother's carefully-tended resting place.

He last visited her graveside about a fortnight earlier.

He said: "We were both too shocked to speak. Someone had dug down almost three feet along the length of the grave.

"Some of the soil was dumped at the top of the grave but most of it had been carried to a hedge about 15 feet away and left underneath."

The grave had no headstone but was marked by a marble vase.

The heavy 8in square container was missing, apparently stolen, but a tin vase which fitted inside it was found nearby.

Mr Gamble said yesterday he was still disturbed by thoughts of the sickening discovery. "If anyone knows anything about the lunatic who tried to dig up my mother's remains, please report it to the police," he urged.

West Norfolk Council's cemetery and crematorium superintendent and registrar, Colin Houseman, met Mr Gamble at the grave an hour after the damage was reported.

Mr Houseman said he had never come across anything similar in any of the council's cemeteries. He was mystified as to why the grave had been singled out and abused in such a fashion.

He had spoken to staff and was certain it had not been dug up in error.

The last interment in that area had been in May and the grave had been seen in reasonable condition since then.

No monumental masons had been working in the area and they would not, in any case, have needed to dig up the grave in that way.

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