A DUNFERMLINE mum has called for more to be done to protect the resting places of loved ones after heartless graffiti slurs found at Dunfermline cemetery outraged the community.

Marie Ellis knows all too well the pain of vile people desecrating treasured memories as her child, who she lost in 2007, is buried in the baby memorial garden.

She was one of the first people to come across the vandalism on Saturday morning.

"I live quite close to the cemetery so it's a regular spot to walk around with my dog, it's very peaceful," Marie said.

"I was there at about 8.30am with my sister when we saw that the new graves had been vandalised.

"We were absolutely disgusted and then we carried on walking and realised that the baby memorial had also been targeted.

"I was just totally shocked that someone would even contemplate doing something like that.

"They must be sick in the head to write that, it's certainly not normal behaviour."

Marie contacted Fife Council to make sure that it could be cleaned so that others could be saved from the distress.

She said: "I've lost my own baby so I didn't want anyone else to have to go through seeing that, thankfully it was quickly cleaned up.

"But this is not the first time this has happened, it was only a few months ago since the last vandalism.

"They need to put cameras up. Either it was youths or someone that wasn't well.

"But I have noticed that there is a lot of teens hanging out at the bridge under the cemetery and they were there on Saturday night.

"I do not understand why they don't have CCTV up. There's a huge amount of people I have spoken to these past few days that have said the community will pay for it if the council haven't got the funds.

"It has caused so much outrage and people want to see something done – it's happening too often."

Although Marie was affected personally by the incident, she stressed that this was a wider community issue.

She added: "It's about getting something done. It's not about me but the community as a whole as it affects so many people.

"It was lovely to see that people went out to help clean the mess up.

"Many people had come to the cemetery to see if their loved one's graves were OK and many were crying.

"There are now lots flowers I've noticed and you can see that people have come out in support."