Vandals have violated the grave of a beloved grandmother by smashing a stained glass window in the headstone above her resting place in Bradford.

Mother-of-four Dot Broadbent died of a brain tumour aged 61 and her family have tended her grave in Bowling Cemetery every week since she passed away six years ago.

But over the weekend, they were horrified to discover thugs had attacked the plot, using a broken lump of old stonework to shatter the glass image of the Virgin Mary.

“It is just mindless cruelty,” said one of Mrs Broadbent’s daughters, Cherie Watson.

“Our mother was a lovely woman who worked all her life and this has caused us such hurt,” said fencing firm boss Mrs Watson.

“This is a place we come to have peace and reflect on things.

“But it will be hard to just come and sit beside Mum and have a chat without feeling upset because of what some idiots have done.

“We’ve had things taken from the grave before – probably by drunks on their way home.

“Now her actual headstone has been targeted, just because somebody wanted to break one with glass in it.

“It was beautiful the way the sun used to light up the colours,” Mrs Watson said.

The memorial message on Mrs Broadbent’s headstone was created by her family and reads: “We saw you suffer, heard you sigh.

“All we could do was stand by.

“When the time came, we suffered too.

“You never deserved what you went through.

Rest In Peace.”

Mrs Watson said they would not standby now and wanted action to improve security at the cemetery where only last month the grave of 30-year-old Tracey Crosby was attacked and damaged.

“Our mum brought us all up to have respect – something which seems to have been lost in people these days.

“So we really want there to be more police and warden patrols and possibly CCTV.

“Just something to try and make people behave with decency,” Mrs Watson said.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman asked anyone with information to call police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.