VANDALS have torn up memorial flowers left by a grieving widower.

Les Sewell was married to his beloved wife for 61 years before she died two years ago.

Now every year on her birthday on October 16 and the anniversary of her death in March he adorns a bench in West Bay with her favourite red roses.

He said: “Saturday should have been my darling wife’s 83rd birthday. The pain of her loss has been unbearable at times, I still find it hard to come to terms with it.

“I thought it would be a nice gesture to have a seat in her memory at West Bay, which she loved.”

Mr Sewell, 85, can’t drive any more but goes to sit on the bench as often as he can. Mr Sewell and his wife Margaret ran the West Dorset bonsai club.