Easthampstead resident Linda McIver regularly visits the grave at Easthampstead Cemetery of her daughter Michelle, who was a stillborn baby seven years ago, to lay sentimental items. However, twice in the space of a week last month she has had items she had placed on the grave removed.

On Wednesday, June 18, Miss McIver paid a visit but discovered that items she had laid previously, including a model windmill and soft toys, had gone.

She replaced them with more sentimental items, including a teddy bear and small ornaments, but found on her next visit on Wednesday, June 25, that her daughter’s grave had been targeted again. Miss McIver said: “I just can’t understand why anyone would want to take things that have been placed next to a grave. I am absolutely fuming and it is very upsetting.

“I want to put things down next to her grave but now I just think, what’s the point? It will just get taken away again and I just want whoever has been doing it to stop.

“My friend and I make sure the grave looks really lovely each time we go along and it’s not nice when we visit a few days later and see that everything has gone.” Miss McIver added that items were also stolen last year.

She contacted staff at the cemetery, managed by Bracknell Forest Council, to see if they had removed the items but they confirmed they had not.

Linda Gizzie, the crematorium’s manager, said: “We’re saddened to hear that items have been going missing from graves or memorials.

“It’s very rare for things like this to happen but when it does it can be painful for families, which is why we ask family and friends to think long and hard about what mementos they leave with memorials.”