Mother condemns thieves whodesecrated grave of brave son

Martin Slack

AN Afghanistan war hero’s grave has been desecrated for a second time while his grieving mother was collecting a medal in his honour.

Heartless thieves struck as Nicolette Williams was in Scotland receiving an Elizabeth Cross and Scroll from Prince Andrew.

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Her 20-year-old son Senior Aircraftsman Christopher Bridge was killed in September 2007 while on patrol near Kandahar air base when an open top Land Rover was blown up by a bomb buried in the road.

Mrs Williams, 42, returned home following the presentation at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland to discover thieves had stolen three brass model aeroplanes from RAF gunner Christopher’s grave.

In 2008 a brass model of a Spitfire, which she had been placed by her son’s gravestone, was stolen. After the theft the plane was returned wrapped in a plastic bag left near the cemetery.

Mrs Williams was also sent two identical replacement planes from people in other parts of the country and all three were put on a stand and glued to the grave at Shiregreen Cemetery, Sheffield.

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Mrs Williams said: “I visit his grave every day and the planes were there before I left for Scotland. I felt sick to the stomach and extremely angry when I discovered they had gone. Whoever is responsible took the planes for the metal because other military items were left.

“What makes it worse is that I was collecting a medal given to the next of kin of servicemen killed in action at a ceremony to thank Christopher for his bravery while someone was robbing his grave. It is despicable.

“It is obvious from the gravestone that someone is buried there who died fighting for his country but those responsible obviously have no conscience.”

The theft comes just weeks after an inquest into Christopher’s death concluded, revealing a pathologist had made 14 separate errors in a post mortem report including his height, weight, hair and eye colour leading Mrs Williams to fear she had buried another man’s body.