GRINNING Claire Burke repeatedly desecrated the grave of a woman and her day-old granddaughter – but eventually was caught on CCTV.
The 78-year-old poured dead flowers and gravel onto the grave of Jill Wilks and her granddaughter Hayley Reynolds.
But Jill's widower Ron, 77, refused to let the 'sickening' acts continue, and spent £150 on the surveillance camera to catch her in the act.
Yesterday, a court heard how Burke, of Oxmoor, Abbeydale, emptied carrier bags full of dead flowers and gravel over the grave. She would pull up live flowers and 'plant' dead ones in flower holders at the burial plot at Coney Hill Cemetery.
Sharon Jomaa, prosecuting, told Cheltenham Magistrates Court: "The matter was very distressing for all the family and for his daughter Debbie, the mother of the one-day-old baby."
The court heard Burke held a grudge against Ron after he became engaged to a woman who used to date her former partner.
Mark Anderson, defending, said Burke accepted and apologised for her "utterly wrong" actions.
"She fully accepts what she has done and that it was utterly wrong, she is very sorry," he said.
Chairman of the bench Hilary Davidson said her actions caused the family "immense distress" but added: "We have heard you apologise sincerely and that you won't do it again."
She was given a conditional discharge for 12 months and a two-year restraining order prohibiting her from contacting Ron or his fiancee Doreen Royals and from visiting the graves. She was also ordered to pay £100 costs.
Yesterday Ron said the attacks had been 'sickening and added: "This has been going on for a long time. At first I thought it was children messing around but it was happening so often that I realised it was malicious. It makes no sense to me why she did it. I hope this does not ever happen to anyone else. She has shown no remorse to us."
He added: "My wife was a lovely woman, it would have been 55 years we were together this year, we were together 46 years before she died."
She died 10 years ago following a heart attack .
Their one-day-old granddaughter Hayley is buried alongside her after dying from a lung condition.
