Sick thugs steal balloons and flowers left at pink memorial bench for murdered Tia Sharp
Family tributes stolen on what would have been the schoolgirl's 16th birthday
POLICE are appealing for witnesses after a pink memorial bench to murdered schoolgirl Tia Sharp was ransacked on what would have been her 16th birthday.
Tia went missing in August 2012 and her body was found in her grandmother's loft seven days later, with her gran's boyfriend Stuart Hazell later jailed for life the murder.
Her body was found wrapped in a black bed sheet and black bag during a fourth police search of grandmother Christine Sharp's home in New Addington, south London.
Tia, who was born on June 30 2000, would have turned 16 just over a fortnight ago, and flowers and balloons were placed on the bench in memory of her short life.
But on July 1, the flowers and balloons were pinched from the bench in Pollards Hill Park in Mitcham, south London - where Tia used to live before moving to New Addington - to the fury of her relatives.
Step-aunt Debbie Gillespie, who lives in Mitcham, said the bench has been 'desecrated', adding: "We haven’t got a grave to visit. We haven’t got anywhere to visit, anywhere to leave anything.
"Her mum has got her ashes, and we don’t really speak.
“The bench is the only place we can go for birthdays and anniversaries and at Christmas.
"For somebody to do that (steal the flowers and balloons) I think it’s just absolutely disgusting.
“It’s just wrong. No one should ever do that. It’s like desecrating a graveyard for someone to steal those flowers and balloons.
"Everyone knows it’s Tia’s bench.”
Ms Gillespie added: "It’s very upsetting for all of us. We’re devastated - we just have to pick ourselves up and try and move on.”
A spokesman for the Met Police said officers were liaising with the family and that officers were appealing for witnesses.
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