A GRIEVING mother today hit out at thieves who stole teddy bears from her four-month-old daughter's grave before vandalising it and said: "How could anyone be so sick?"

Mother of two Emma Wharton, 22, appealed for the return of the treasured celtic teddy bears, which has been passed down generations of her family, as Blackburn with Darwen Council bosses reviewed security at the cemetery.

Emma, who lives in the Johnson Street area of Blackburn with her children, Callum, 18 months and four-year-old Toni, had visited the tiny grave of her daughter Megan Reid, at Pleasington Cemetery, Blackburn, every day since she died on June 2.

She is believed to have been a victim of cot death.

Because Emma has not yet been able to get a headstone for the tiny grave, she has turned it into a garden of remembrance, complete with teddy bears, windmills and a set of 'gates to heaven'.

Earlier this week she missed going to tend the garden for the first time.

In the three days between visits, vandals had smashed several windmills placed on the plot, knocked down the miniature gates and stolen two teddy bears and an angel statue.

Personal items are believed to have been taken from neighbouring graves.

A distraught Emma today said: "I just want the items back. They mean nothing to the people who have taken them but so much to us. One was given to Megan by my sister and she always had it with her in the short time she was alive. "I don't know how anyone could steal from a grave, let alone vandalise it as well. They are sick.

"I created the garden because I haven't yet been able to get the headstone yet.

"My daughter has been buried there for less than a month and people have already wrecked it."

The theft is the latest in a long line of crimes committed against the dead at graveyards across East Lancashire.

Yesterday, Georgina Shorrock revealed how she was planning for her baby's ashes to be exhumed and moved to another part of Darwen Cemetery after the grave had been driven over, walked over, and items stolen from it.

Earlier this year, memorial benches were stolen from Darwen Cemetery while graveyards in Accrington, Church and Great Harwood have been vandalised.

Tom Wilson, Head of Outdoor Amenities at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "Fortunately, thefts from grave sites is not a regular problem at Pleasington because of its remote location.

"But when it does happen, it is extremely distressing and we extend our deepest sympathy to the family.