Family's heartbreak as 'horrendous' racist graffiti discovered on Wigan dad's headstone at cemetery

Yasemin Ulukmen, 24, was stunned to discover a racist slur had been painted across 12 headstones at Gidlow Cemetery over the bank holiday weekend.

Among them was the memorial to her father Ismail Ulukmen, from Marsh Green, who died in 2011.

She said: “It was disgusting. It was horrendous to see. It was absolutely shocking.”

Yasemin lives in Peterborough and says the family found out about the vandalism on Monday, when her brother and sister-in-law, who live in Wigan, saw a post on Facebook.

They phoned to inform her what had happened to the grave of Mr Ulukmen, who was Turkish and had four children and a stepson.

She said: “It was a shocking phone call to get. I felt really helpless. I felt like I couldn’t do a lot.”

Her brother and sister-in-law went to the cemetery to clean up the headstone, but the paint could not be completely removed.

Yasemin said it was the only time the grave had been vandalised since her father’s death and she fears it could now happen again.

“There should be more security within the cemetery,” she said. “For something like this to have happened is just disgusting, especially as it’s in a Muslim area of the cemetery. A grave for nuns was also damaged.”

She urged the vandals to think about how they would feel if the grave of someone they loved was targeted in this way.

She said: “I wouldn’t wish it on them.”

A photograph of the damaged gravestones has been shared widely on Facebook after being posted on Monday morning by Kimberley Dainty.

She was outraged by what had happened and went to clean up the graffiti, along with several other people.

Police are investigating the vandalism but no arrests have yet been made.

Insp Sam Davies, of Greater Manchester Police’s Wigan division, said: "This behaviour is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated by both the police and our local communities.

"Whilst this type of crime is thankfully rare, it has understandably caused a great deal of distress to not only the families but local residents.

"Our policing teams have increased patrols in the area and we will work with those responsible for the cemetery to offer advice about crime prevention measures.

“I would like to urge anyone who may have information regarding the damage being caused, or has witnessed anyone acting suspiciously in the area, to make contact with us immediately so we can follow these lines of enquiry.

"Residents or businesses with private CCTV are also asked to check for anything that may be of relevance and make contact with us.”

A Wigan Council spokesperson said “We were made aware of offensive graffiti sprayed on graves at Gidlow Cemetery over the bank holiday weekend.

“Our sincere gratitude goes to the members of the public who acted to clean this off before our team was able to attend.

“We take reports of racist and discriminatory graffiti very seriously and will continue to work with the police to tackle this inexcusable crime.”

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101, quoting incident 0898 of August 28, or independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.