A SOUTH Belfast community worker has expressed his anger after poppy wreaths laid at Remembrance Sunday earlier this month were destroyed by vandals.
The six wreaths had been laid at Ballynafeigh War Memorial at Annadale Flats and were destroyed some time between November 14 and November 19.
Police are treating the report of criminal damage as a hate crime.
Sergeant Matt Boucher said: “We a received a report that a number of wreaths had been set alight and destroyed at the site sometime between Sunday 14 November and today.
“Enquiries are ongoing treated at this stage we are treating this as a hate crime."
George Stevenson, from Ballynafeigh Unionist Forum described it as a "vile act".
"Today we have woken to find that the Annadale Memorial Garden has been vandalised in what can only be treated as a clear hate crime," he said.
"Not even a week has passed since the Ballynafeigh community came together to pay their respects, and today we found six wreaths were destroyed in the vile act.
"Many local community groups laid wreaths for the service and sacrifice of all those that have defended our freedoms and protected our way of life. Children from a local youth group hand-made the wreaths and even these were destroyed.
"While we are teaching our children respect and tolerance, it seems that the nationalist New Ireland agenda is a smokescreen from the real hatred that would be shown in the mythical Ireland of equals."
