GRIEVING mother Tracey Welch is angry and sickened by thieves who stole memorial ornaments from her young son's grave.

Tom Bush was 16 when he died of a heart attack on August 18, 2003 - just days before he would have received his GCSE exam results from Budmouth Technology College.

Mrs Welch said the family had been devastated to find that items left to mark the third anniversary of his death had been taken from his grave at Weymouth Crematorium.

Teddy bears, cartoon characters, a home made plaque and candles were among the objects placed at the stone which were stolen overnight.

"I think it's absolutely evil. How anybody can touch anything in a graveyard is beyond me. It's sick," said Mrs Welch, who lives with her husband Mark in Cobham Drive, Weymouth.

She added: "Three years down the road and it still hasn't really sunk in.

"It is still early days and then somebody goes and vandalises the grave. I'm angry and I'm upset."

The family visit the grave once a week and recently had to retrieve some items which had been taken from the site and thrown in a hedge.

"We have been up there looking through bins, looking through stones. Nobody else's seems to have been touched," added Mrs Welch.

She said that her son Tom, a keen footballer, had had a good sense of humour and was witty and kind.

Mrs Welch said that better security measures should be in place at the crematorium and added: "I have had to ask children who were playing and riding their bikes around the baby garden there to go somewhere else."

She said that the lack of a fence around the site made it easy for people to get in since the cemetery gates had been removed.

A spokesman for Dorset Police said anyone with information or who saw anything suspicious happening at the cemetery should call 01305 222222 in confidence.