Grieving mum’s distress as floral tributes stolen

Vicky Hartley, 48, of Elm Crescent, Kinsley, said she was driving home from work and was absolutely disgusted to find the bunch of bright yellow flowers had been taken from the spot on Wakefield Road, where her son Joshua Housley was knocked down by a car and killed in March.

She said: “I just couldn’t believe it, they had only been there two days and now they have gone. I am distraught about this - the whole family is because we are still coming to terms with his death and to have something like this happen just makes it so much more difficult to cope with.”

She added that the flowers were secured to the lamppost with tie-wraps.

She said: “Whoever did this left the packaging so I know they can’t have just blown away. It is terrible.”

The family regularly puts flowers on the lamppost and at Joshua’s grave in Hemsworth cemetery.

She added: “We just want to keep something alive for him. I just can’t imagine why someone would do such a terrible thing.”

Joshua was hit by a silver Volkswagen on March 26 while he was going to catch a bus to Wakefield College’s Thornes Park – where he had enrolled the previous September.

He was taken to Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield with serious head injuries and a broken neck, and his life support machine was turned off less than six hours after the accident.

She added: “I just can’t believe that someone would do such a terrible thing. We put a picture of him on the lamppost to remember him so whoever did this knows what they have done.”

“This isn’t the first time it has happened either. A couple of months ago a cross that we placed there and another bunch of flowers were ripped off. It is beyond belief.”