A HEARTBROKEN mother says she is afraid to put a Christmas wreath on her son's grave after it was targeted by vandals.

Kathleen Leatherbarrow fears the wreath, like the bunches of flowers she put on his resting place last week, will be torn up and destroyed.

Her 22-year-old son Karl Kelly lost his fight for life in 1999 after being in a coma for two-year-old coma following a car smash.

He had been asleep in the back of a Vauxhall Astra when the car crashed into a tree.

Mrs Leatherbarrow, aged 47, of Masefield Drive, New Bury, is now appealing for the vandals who target his grave in the garden of remembrance at St James's Church, Farnworth, to let him finally rest in peace.

She said: "I don't know why they are targeting Karl's grave. They are too young to have know him.

"Karl's ashes are buried in the garden of remembrance. His resting place has been smashed up nearly every time I visit."

The youths have broken memorial pots, have torn the heads off flowers and have even destroyed a set of plastic angels that Mrs Leatherbarrow bought for Christmas.

She added: "It's heartbreaking. I can't stand the thought of putting a wreath or flowers there if they're going to be smashed up.

"I just wish the police or the parents of these children would make them stop. It's a shame. People shouldn't be made to feel sad like this."