Family outraged after finding scaffolding poles going through parents grave at Leeds cemetery

A family have spoken of their shock after finding scaffolding poles penetrating through their parents' grave in a Leeds cemetery.

Anthony Di Placido, his wife Glynis and brother Mark were attending the funeral of a relative at Killingbeck Cemetery on Friday when they discovered the mess at the grave site.

They visited the grave of Mr Placido’s mum and dad at the York Road cemetery, and found a wooden crate filled with mud sitting in front of the headstones.

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Pictures of the grave also show scaffolding poles, which are holding the earth in place, spiking downwards through the ground into the grave.

Their mum was only buried at the cemetery in May last year.

Mrs Di Placido told the YEP: “We went to visit our mother and fathers’ grave today and was shocked and disgusted, and so upset to the state of the grave. 

“This is not acceptable to us and we do not believe this should be allowed.

“To us it is like desecrating our parents grave, sticking scaffolding poles straight through it, and these must have been forced in a long way to hold the weight of the boards with the earth in it.”

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The family was also outraged that fresh flowers, which were only placed at the weekend in memory of their parents, had been “thrown to one side”.
However the Roman Catholic Diocese of Leeds explained that the grave had been boarded-over ahead of another funeral.

And a statement alleged staff had been threatened and sworn at by two men following the incident.

It said: “In all cemeteries, when a new grave is dug, closely-adjoining grave plots must by necessity be boarded-over in this manner, to avoid them being covered with earth from the newly-dug grave.

“This is alluded to in Killingbeck’s Policy & Procedures document and will also have happened to neighbouring plots when Mrs Di Placido was buried.

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“Once the new burial has taken place, all graves are returned to their previous condition.”

It added: “Cemetery staff treat all graves with reverence and respect and all bereaved relatives with sensitivity. Out of compassion for the family’s distress, the police were not called on this occasion.”

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