Gravestones damaged in Cookstown cemetery attack

Police said graffiti was paint-sprayed and scraped onto the stones during the attack at the cemetery on Drum Road at about 3.35am.

The men, aged between 19 and 21, were arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage.

A PSNI spokesman said the incident was being treated as a hate crime.

Condemning the incident, UUP Assembly Member Sandra Overend said: “I am utterly appalled to hear that gravestones in the Drum Road graveyard have been vandalised with Republican graffiti in a sickening, overnight hate crime.

“This is first and foremost and attack on the families of those who are buried there, and my sympathies are with them at this time.

“But it is also an attack on the entire community in Mid-Ulster, who have been let down by these mindless thugs.

“It is shocking to think that these types of crimes are still being carried out.