How low can some people sink? It is bad enough when memorials are sprayed with graffiti - a terrible insult to the dead and an affront to their families. The culprits should be ashamed of themselves.

But if they are despicable what are we to think of the people who ripped off and took away two brass plates from the war memorial at Eccleshill and tried to do the same to two others? It is believed that they plundered the plates for their scrap value, to be melted down.

These plates carry the names of the people the village lost in two world wars. They were husbands, sons, fathers and brothers who left their ordinary, settled lives - their families, their jobs in the mills and factories - to fight for the freedoms that we (and that includes the robbers) take so much for granted. They never came back, but they are remembered by their names on a roll of honour in the place they called home. That is how their community showed its gratitude and its respect, with a lasting memorial.

Now some people who have no respect for anything and are clearly oblivious to how much they owe to the war dead have taken it upon themselves to deface the Eccleshill memorial in the most appalling way.

Someone must know who they are. Someone will probably be offered those plates which are much, much more than mere scrap metal. They owe it to the fallen of two world wars to report the thieves and return the plates to their rightful place.