‘How can you sleep at night?’ son asks grave robbing thieves

For years flower pots and plinths placed on George Rusk’s grave at Kernan Cemetery in Portadown have been robbed, causing great distress to his 87-year-old wife Marie.

His son Nicholas said he has lost count of the number of times the grave has been robbed since his father’s death in 2009.

Mr Rusk said he was particularly angry on August 12, the anniversary of his father’s death, when he brought his mother to visit the grave and again the flower plinth had been stolen.

Nicholas said his mother was ‘very upset’.

“It is an end plot. Numerous times over the years I have gone out to the grave only to find the little pot for holding flowers in the plinth has been removed.

“In fact I usually have to go and check firstly if it’s there before going back with flowers.

“On Wednesday, the anniversary of his death, I went straight from work so hadn’t had the chance to check beforehand.

“Sadly once again someone had decided to remove/pinch the flower pot.

“I eventually got another one organised but as you can imagine my mother was distressed at this.

“I want to appeal directly to the individual who keeps doing this. Why? How do you sleep at night?

“It really is upsetting that “grave robbing” is occurring in Portadown in the 21st century,” said Nicholas.

He explained that when his father first died they had a brass and gold plinth for flowers but it soon disappeared as did others that replaced it.

“We decided just to get plastic ones thinking they would not be taken but they were,” he said.

Nicholas said his father would have been well known in Portadown and was a member of St Mark’s Band.

“It’s just appalling that there is grave robbing going on,” said Nicholas.

A spokesperson for Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Council said: “We have received no recent reports of items going missing from graves in Kernan cemetery. Our staff are onsite Monday to Friday and we have asked them to be vigilant to try to prevent this type of activity.

“While we understand that this is distressing for any family, unfortunately there is very little we can do to prevent these rare incidents as our cemeteries are open outside working hours and such items are left at the owners’ risk.

“In the last two years we have received just one similar report, which the family reported to the police. We would encourage anyone who is encountering this problem to do the same.”

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