By Phil Coleman

Last updated 13:05, Friday, 29 August 2008

A GRIEVING widow has told how flowers and gifts which she left on her husband’s grave at Carlisle Cemetery were stolen within hours.

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Julie Fitzsimmons: ‘I don’t know why anybody would do this’

Julie Fitzsimmons, 35, lost her husband Dave, 33, to cancer, just 95 days after they married at the city’s Cumberland Infirmary.

Over the last six months, thieves have added to her pain by repeatedly targeting his grave, stealing flowers, cards, and a marble cherub.

She spoke out after The Cumberland News reported how ornaments were stolen from the grave of murdered Carlisle baby Hassan Martin at the same cemetery.

Dave died last October after contracting a rare form of stomach cancer.

The latest raid on his grave happened on August 14, the day of his birthday.

Julie, of Brookside, Raffles, Carlisle, said: “It’s happened about eight times since Christmas, when I’ve left flowers, cards, and little ornaments at his grave. When it last happened, on August 14, I’d put down flowers and a card, and by the time I went back a couple of hours later to check they’d gone.

“It’s really, really upsetting. The people who are doing this are the lowest of the low.

“Dave was a very kind, loving man, who was great fun – a good man. He never harmed anyone and wouldn’t have hurt a fly. He deserved respect but this is disrespectful.

“It’s hard to find the words to describe what it’s been like over the last year.

“I’ve tried to make Dave’s grave look nice, but it’s got to the stage where I feel I dare not put anything on it.

“I don’t know why anybody would do this. They should do something to stop it – maybe CCTV cameras.”

Julie married Dave, a former plant operator at Brampton Skips, while he was a patient at Beech B ward on July 4 last year. Doctors had told him he probably had days to live, but he found the strength to live for another three months.

As well as the attacks on her husband’s grave, there have been similar thefts from the grave of her late aunt Pat Fitzsimmons, 73, who died in June, said Julie, who works at the Rosehill branch of Tesco.

Baby Hassan Martin died five years ago when his estranged father Shahajan Kabir attacked him in a Carlisle bakery shop.

He was 10-months-old.

His heartbroken mother Lorna Patterson, 25, still visits the cemetery four days a week, and recently found ornamental figures had been taken.

Police are investigating the thefts. A spokeswoman for Carlisle City Council described the thefts from Hassan’s grave as cruel. She said the 85-acre cemetery grounds were regularly patrolled.

The spokeswoman added: “Visiting a cemetery plot is a way of coping with loss and any theft from the graveside can very distressing.

“Thankfully it is uncommon, as the grounds are patrolled on a regular basis and every step is taken to ensure high maintenance standards within the grounds.

“We advise anyone who experiences any sort of vandalism or theft within the grounds of the cemetery to contact us and we will provide as much support as we can, notifying the police, if necessary.

“Although we take security of the area seriously, there are around 60,000 headstones within Carlisle Cemetery and it would be impossible to have blanket CCTV coverage of the whole 85 acres of the site."