War memorial thefts 'sick and depraved' - MP'

THIEVES who stole bronze plaques from a war memorial honouring hundreds of soldiers have been condemned as "sick and depraved".

Two plaques were wrenched from the First World War monument in Blackley, Manchester, where former soldiers gather to honour fallen heroes on Remembrance Day.

It is suspected the plaques, inscribed with the names of 215 soldiers killed in the 1914-18 war, were stolen to sell as scrap metal.

Graham Stringer, the local Labour MP for Blackley and Broughton, said: "It is sick and depraved, there are no other words for it.

"It just means the people who have done this have no respect for any of the values of society, they are just concerned with making a few pounds.

"It is there to commemorate those people who died fighting for their country and to steal metal for scrap value, it is just … it can only be described as depraved."

Blackley War Memorial stands in Boggart Hole Clough, a park in north Manchester.

Known locally as the Angel monument, it is a Grade II listed memorial and was erected in 1921 by public subscription.