Rotorua parents are horrified and upset that vandals could tear apart the gravesites of stillborn babies and other children at the Sala St Cemetery.
Crosses have been pulled out of the ground or knocked over, ornaments smashed and toys strewn across the grass in the children's burial area, where more than 50 children have been buried.
Jennifer Anastasi, who volunteers for stillbirth and neonatal death charity Sands Rotorua, yesterday rang around parents who had lost children to let them know about the vandalism.
"It's the most heartless, cruellest thing I have ever seen," she said.
"It's absolutely horrible. Families who have lost babies have not had a long period of time with them to make memories and they spend a considerable amount of time after a child has died to create those. The cemetery is an incredibly special place to them, it's a part of their parenting and it's sad that someone should take that away.