Boys, 10 and 11, break down after mum hands them in for vandalising town graves
Two boys handed in by their mother for vandalising 40 graves have broken down in tears after realising the pain they caused.
Last week, a small community in South Australia's Riverland, was devastated after finding the headstones at the Berri cemetery damaged and ornaments smashed.
Berri Barmera Council works co-ordinator Dave Otto De Grancy later received a phone call from the mother of two boys, aged 10 and 11, saying they were responsible.
“I explained to the boys the meaning of a headstone and that each headstone tells its own story, I explained to them that a grave is a very sacred site for each person," Mr Otto De Grancy told the Adelaide Advertiser.
“After a while, the lads really broke down and I drummed into them how much they’d hurt their mum and nanna and they gave them a kiss and cuddle and apologised."
The boys' mother said they will be put to work in the cemetery to make up for the damage.
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Mr Otto De Grancy said they also took the boys around the site to apologise to the graves.
"By the end, one of the little boys said ‘I just wish I could take all this back and say sorry to all the people’ and that’s when I knew they were not bad kids,” he said.
The boys were suspended from their primary school and will weed the grounds at the cemetery for a week.
Mr Otto De Grancy said he will be speaking with a third boy, aged nine, believed to also be responsible for the damage.
A GoFundMe page was started to raise money to fix the damage.
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