Vandals who rampaged through Wollongong Cemetery desecrating up to a dozen graves and setting graveside flowers alight have been described as ``low-life scum'' by police.
The vandal or vandals used some form of bat to smash marble crucifixes from their fixtures and to shatter porcelain angels from the mainly Italian crypts.
They also set alight plastic grave flowers, smashed the glass display case of one crypt and walked along the roofs of others, causing about $5000 damage.
The desecration was discovered by Wollongong City Council maintenance workers about 7am yesterday and occurred just months before a 2m-high security fence around the cemetery was due to be completed.
It is the third cemetery vandalism attack in the region in less than a year and Wollongong police say they have had enough.
''As far as I'm concerned, whoever the individuals are, whether they are teenagers or adults, they are low-life pieces of scum,'' Chief Inspector Ken McDonald said.
''They have a total lack of respect and no morals. It is random, malicious damage to people's memories and sacred sites, it is desecration.
''We will be doing everything in our power to find out who it is.''
As forensic officers dusted the crypts for fingerprints yesterday, one elderly man brought a bunch of flowers to his wife's grave, only to discover the vase was no longer there. Instead it lay on the ground, smashed to pieces.
The council's director of works and infrastructure Peter Kofod said he was disgusted by the attack.
"Unfortunately there are people out there with no consideration for the pain an act like this causes families," Mr Kofod said.
The attack occurred between 3.30pm Wednesday and 7am yesterday and the council is appealing for anyone with information to contact Wollongong police on 4226 7899.
In January, vandals destroyed some of the oldest graves in the region in a malicious attack on the Wesleyan Presbyterian section of Wollongong Cemetery. The damage of the 45 headstones reignited community pressure on the council to install the security fence.
In June last year, 37 graves in the Macedonian section of the Wollongong Lawn Cemetery at Kembla Grange were attacked. A week later, three Illawarra schoolboys were arrested.
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