A DISTRAUGHT mother went to visit her baby’s grave to discover that a ‘cemented down’ statue had been stolen.

Leona Yildiz went to Greenacres Cemetery in Oldham to visit her little boy Alan Setterfield’s grave only to discover the focal piece had gone.

After an appeal on Facebook Leona was reunited with the statue but said that she has been left ‘devastated’.

She said that it was a ‘calculated theft’ as the lion was cemented down and even had a metal rod inserted into the ground by her two sons Damien and Steven, who are builders, so that nobody could remove it.

Leona said: “It has made me sick to know that the statue was chipped off my son’s grave and purposely taken by those heartless thieves. You can clearly see that it’s a baby’s grave.

“Not only that, it took two people to carry it and to actually chip away at it to remove from the actual grave.”

Back in 1991 Leona lost her little boy Alan to a rare genetic disease called Sandhoff’s Disease.

He was 18 months old when he passed away and Leona, along with her other children Damien, Steven, Laura and Sebastian, regularly visit Alan’s place of rest.

At Christmas Leona said her grandchildren left Alan a Walt Disney snow globe that ‘didn’t even make it to the new year’.

She said: “It is absolutely disgusting that you can’t have anything of value on your loved ones grave that it is going to be stolen.

“We always take Alan ornaments and little trinkets for his birthday and Christmas but we are going to have to just take plants and flowers from now on as items of value are getting stolen.”

When Leona put an appeal on Facebook for the statue, a local woman – who does not want to be named – got in touch and gave Leona the lion back with the name of the person she had bought it from.

She said: “It is clear the thief stole the statue to feed a drug habit. I just can’t understand though. Even if you’re on drugs, you can see it is a baby’s grave. His picture is on there.

“It was a calculated theft. they had weighed it up and went back to get it with tools. It sickens me.”

The ornament is now in Leona’s garden and she said it won’t be going back to the cemetery. She said: “There’s no point in putting the lion back. You can’t have anything substantial or nice because it’s just not safe.”

The devastated mum also said that she wants to see the council do more to catch the the vandals.

Oldham Council were contacted about the theft.

A council spokesperson said: “The loss of a loved one is difficult enough without families having to face a heartless theft like this. Incidents like this are rare but understandably very upsetting when they do occur.

“The maintenance of Greenacres Cemetery is the responsibility of Oldham Council.

“With regards to security, the council’s security team, First Response, patrol the cemetery several times a day.”

They added: “There are no plans to install CCTV at this time and we advise anyone who has had anything stolen from their loved ones’ graves to report the theft to the local police.”