DEVASTATED mums in Poundbury were left in tears after the ‘disgusting’ treatment of their sons’ graves. 

Loni Wakefield, Lisa Hopkins and Jess Larder, were horrified to find that their sons’ graves at Poundbury Cemetery had been covered in wet grass after a groundskeeper had cut it on Tuesday morning.

Mum Loni, 24, discovered the grass strewn across her son Shane’s grave when she went up on Tuesday morning.

Baby Shane was stillborn in 2013. She said it looked like someone had thrown balls of grass over the graves. She said: “I take a lot of pride in my baby’s home. It’s my world up there and I just don’t appreciate it.”

Loni, from Poundbury, added: “I totally appreciate them doing their work, but there’s doing the work and having no respect.

“It’s having a bit of respect. At the end of the day it’s my baby’s home, it’s where he lives.”

She said the wet grass had gone all into the stones on the memorial and across the balloons and the toy rabbit she had brought baby Shane for Easter.

Loni said she spent time washing it all off and would be going back to clean the memorial up further.

Lisa Hopkins, 29, says her son Oscar’s grave was the worst affected, and is ‘fuming’ over the discovery.

Baby Oscar was stillborn in 2016. She said: “There should be consequences for such disrespect.

“I spent hours doing it up the other day and now we have to redo everything and clean it all off. 

“It’s very disrespectful, our boy’s headstone is completely covered.” 

Lisa said that she wants to be able to relax at her son’s grave, whilst she spends time with her lost son. She said: “We are never going to see them grow up.”

Jess Larder’s son Riley died when he was just five days old in 2014. Jess, 19, said discovering the grass all over Riley’s grave had deeply upset her, especially since it was previously targeted by vandals in 2015, who left the headstone covered in glue. 

She said: “I did his grave up two weeks ago and it took me three hours. We are now having to spend time doing it up again. 

Steve Newman, Deputy Town Clerk at Dorchester Town Council, said: “We apologise for any distress that it may have caused. 

“The grass is cut monthly. The way it is cut is the whole area is cut, and following this they will go around with a blower and blow grass off the headstones. They were still cutting the grass when the grave was first found.”

“We take great pride in our cemetery and we like to keep it maintained.”