21 May 2018

Woman arrested over headstone destruction at Hawke's Bay cemetery

10:22 am on 21 May 2018

Police have arrested a 46-year-old woman after several headstones at a urupā in nothern Hawke's Bay were destroyed.

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Photo: Facebook / Kaye Wesley

Police said the matter was ongoing, and acknowledged the distress the damage had caused to whanau and community members.

Kaye Wesley has posted on Facebook an emotionally-charged video of her visit to the Raupunga grave site on the weekend.

She discovered her brother's headstone had been damaged, along with a number of others.

"This just makes me so angry," she said in the video.

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Photo: Facebook / Kaye Wesley

Wairoa mayor Craig Little said the community was in shock.

"Honestly I just feel so sorry for the families that that has occurred to and they must be just going through hell... they've lost their loved ones... now they have to go through this again," he said.

Mr Little said the police were involved and he was not ruling out the incident being caused by out of towners.

"I'd hate for them to get hold of whoever has done it because they're a pretty tough community and there's just no need to tolerate something like this," he said.

A Givealittle donation page has been set up to raise money to tidy and restore the site.