The woman, who did not want to be identified, contacted the Larne Times after a visit to her son's grave in Larne cemetery last Tuesday.

She explained that – for the third time – flowers and other carefully-chosen items had been snatched from his grave.

And, clearly distressed by what had happened, she appealed for anyone involved in such thefts to think of how devastating they are.

"They might think it's a bit of fun, a laugh when nobody is about. But, it is just heartbreaking to think that there is so little respect for people, their loved ones and what they are going through.

"I lost my son two-and-a-half years ago and it is still very raw.

"His wee daughter, who is only seven years old, bought a little angel with a glass dome over it and told me 'Give it to my daddy'. I put it on his grave and now someone has taken it.

"What can you say about people like that? That wee angel was chosen with love and someone thought they had the right to just take it. What were they going to do with it? Put it on someone else's grave?

"Words just cannot express how upsetting it is. It's just terrible and that's now the third time it has happened.

"One other time we had a lovely basket of flowers and they were stolen too.

"Who would think of giving someone flowers that had been stolen from a grave?"

The woman said she was now scared to risk placing anything else on her son's grave in fear that the thieves would strike again.

"I'm up at the cemetery nearly every other day and other people I meet are saying the same thing, that flowers and ornaments and things have been taken from the graves of their loved ones.

"I don't know how people can stoop so low. To think they would take a lovely wee thing like the angel as if it was nothing and maybe just destroy it. It meant the world to us; to my son's wee daughter.

"She lives in England and will be over here soon on holiday. I'll have to try to find another one and explain to her that the one she chose especially for him was stolen. She lost her daddy and now someone does something like this. It's just not fair."

A spokeswoman for Larne Council said: "The council has passed on to the police all reports it has received of thefts from graves at the cemetery. These incidents are occurring at night when the cemetery is closed. The last theft reported to the police by the council was no later than last Wednesday night, June 18."