Violation of gravesite distressing

Visiting the graves of her parents and brother is always an emotional experience for elderly Te Kopuru resident Lola Cohen.
And she was upset after recently finding someone had "interfered" with her parents' grave at the Red Hill Cemetery.
Mrs Cohen said a person with good intentions had dug holes and planted small plants in the grave bed, which now had grass growing over it.
She had also found dirt in the planter holes in the concrete head stone surround where she had wanted to place flower and plant containers.
"I have not dug any holes in the grave bed and neither have I put any dirt in the planters on the gravestone. Whoever's doing it, well I wish they would stop because they've got a cheek to do it quite frankly," she said.
Mrs Cohen, 73, said the person responsible for planting the grave probably had the best of intentions but it was not their place to do it.
About 11 years ago - not long after her brother Robert Clarke had died - she had found a beer bottle buried upside down on his plot.
"I thought this was inappropriate then as well because although my brother liked a drink with his friends - and you do see people placing beer cans and other things on graves which remind them of the person who has gone - I felt the beer bottle on my brother's grave was distasteful."
Mrs Cohen said she was telling her story to the Kaipara Advocate because she was upset about the interference with graves.
"I know the council mows the cemetery and tidies up around the graves and I certainly don't mind people placing flowers on the grave, but digging into it or into the headstone areas is just not on at all," she said.
Unwilling to have her photograph taken, Mrs Cohen said she saw the interference with the grave as nothing short of desecration and wanted to get the message across strongly that the graves should be left alone by people who had no authority to touch them.
"It would be a different story if there were no family left to care for the graves, but I visit here frequently and I also have two brothers still alive who are affected by this as well," she said.
Kaipara District Council assets manager Blair King said the Red Hill cemetery was council-owned and maintained.
However, the maintenance carried out consisted only of mowing the grass and general ground maintenance.
The only reason council staff would touch a grave would be to rectify a public hazard such as a trip hazard.
"Anyone can walk into a cemetery so it comes down to who is actually touching graves," Mr King said.
There were no specific rules on who could place flowers on graves, but any digging in grave beds would not be encouraged.
Mr King said remembrances were a personal issue and the council was keen to keep the cemetery as a place people could freely visit, remember and have a chat about their loved ones.
Dargaville police Sergeant Jonathan Tier said what was happening to Mrs Cohen's family graves did not constitute a criminal offence. "It's actually no offence because there is no intent to commit any offence," he said.
Mr Tier said if people were damaging gravestones or digging up graves that would be classed as wilful damage or interfering with a grave, which were criminal offences.