PETER Barry was left devastated when his teenage son Karl was killed in a shooting accident just over a year ago.

He found the only way he could cope with the tragedy was to keep himself busy -- and restoring a battered old Citroen 2CV helped him through.

But now the car that brought a little joy into his life during those traumatic days has been defaced by vandals.

It was a setback he did not need just a few days after the first anniversary of 19-year-old Karl's death.

He said: "I just don't understand the mentality of it. It's just like the people who knock over gravestones.

"They don't seem to realise that they are piling misery on top of misery."

Karl, a former pupil of Sharples School, died after being shot at point-blank range in a cowshed at a nearby farm at the end of December 2001.

A 34-year-old farmer was cleared of manslaughter after a judge ordered a jury to find him not guilty last year.

Karl's father, aged 43, bought the Citroen a few months after his son's death.

Now, Peter, of Chorley Old Road, Heaton, is urging the vandals who damaged it to come to their senses before they hurt another person.

He said: "I bought the little 2CV for just a few hundred pounds and I put all my time and energy into restoring it.

"Doing so brought a little pleasure into what had suddenly become a very empty life.

"I needed to do something constructive, and keeping busy was the only way I was able to cope with the tragedy.

"Now, on what is virtually the anniversary of my son's death, some gutless individual has thrown paint-stripper over the entire car.

"I have now installed a video camera so that any further incidents will be captured.

"I hope the person or persons responsible will leave the car alone. There's nothing to be gained by damaging it. It's time people learned to live and let live."

Anyone with information about the attack on Mr Barry's car should call Bolton police on 0161 872 5050.