Mum-of-three hits out at graffiti aimed at her and family

A MUM-OF-THREE says her family's life has been made a misery by vandals who left their stair plastered in graffiti aimed at her and her children.

Lee-Ann Sutherland, 30, pictured, says her children, aged ten and 13, have been coming home in tears after seeing the graffiti, which includes insults aimed at the family.

The graffiti also refers to "Chin", the nickname given to Ms Sutherland by bullies when she was herself a schoolgirl.

The damage to the stair in Piershill Square East was first done last week and has been getting worse as the vandals re-visit the flats overnight or while Ms Sutherland is out.

The full-time-mum said: "It appeared last week, it's been getting worse and worse, it's been done again. It's on my door and my friend's door. My kids are coming up the stair crying. It's all down the stairs, you can't miss it. My kids shouldn't have to live like this. It's deteriorating my health, it's put me into depression."

Ms Sutherland, who also has a four-year-old son, hit out at the youths she said were responsible for the graffiti: "There's no reason for it, it's just kids, it's the way they're brought up about here, their parents just don't want to know. The kids are out at 11 at night, they've egged my friend's windows, and they've egged someone else's windows. There are elderly women living downstairs as well, they shouldn't have to live like this."

Ms Sutherland reported the graffiti yesterday and was visited by council workers, but they were unable to clean most of it and had to order painters to cover it over.

She said: "They've brought somebody out, but they've can't remove it because it's permanent marker – they've tried to remove some and they've said they've done as much as they can."

She said she had tried repeatedly over recent months to get the broken stair door in the council block repaired to keep unwelcome visitors out: "I've been trying to get it fixed, I even tried to get it done privately, but I've got to go through the council to do it. I reported it months ago."

The city council said it had responded within 24 hours to Ms Sutherland's call about the graffiti, but it had no record of complaints about the broken stair door, and had now submitted a request for it to be repaired.

A spokeswoman said: "We took immediate action to ensure the customer got a satisfactory response to her complaint."