Bristol woman jailed after vandalising dead man's headstone
Simona Julius poured paint over it and sent abusive messages to the man's family
A woman who damaged a headstone at a Bristol crematorium has been jailed for eight weeks.
Simona Julius from St George, who's 25, had admitted criminal damage and two counts of malicious communications after she poured white paint over the headstone of 22-year-old Liam Scarman last November.
She also left an unpleasant note for his family at Westerleigh Crematorium and, after publicity about the incident, sent further offensive messages to named family members in Christmas cards.
As well as the prison sentence she has been ordered to pay £500 compensation to the family and handed a three-year restraining order.
District Judge Lynne Matthews described Julius’ actions as “perplexing” and “wicked” adding that the timing of the offences “struck at the very heart” of the family.
They came just before the three-year anniversary of Liam’s death in December 2017 and caused his family great distress and affected his grieving mother’s health.
In a personal statement to the court, Liam’s mother Sue Witt described how Julius’ actions “took over” family members’ lives and was all they could think and talk about.
She said: “Losing a child is the worst possible grief you could imagine.
"It has consumed my life. Having found out that somebody had damaged Liam’s grave just compounded all those emotions and undid the progress I had made in dealing with his death.
"I think people are wondering what kind of person Liam was, how horrible a person he must have been for somebody to damage his grave the way they did, when in reality everybody who knew him loved him."
Some of the notes were addressed to Liam’s father, Trevor Scarman, who said in his statement: “When I found out Liam’s headstone had been vandalised, I had a numb feeling that went through my body.
"My initial reaction was why? Why had someone damaged it? Why just Liam’s was targeted?
"How anyone can write such disgusting things about my son I just cannot believe."
Investigating officer PC Kyle Maywood of the said: “I’m glad that we were able to identify the culprit and bring some relief to the family, but Julius has never answered the question of what motivated her to act as she did and cause such distress.
"I hope the sentence will help Liam’s family to put this behind them so they are able to remember him, their much-loved son and brother, and not Julius’ hateful actions.
"I also hope the case gives other victims of hate crime the confidence to report incidents to us.”