Teens found guilty in Glenwood Cemetery vandalism spree
Administrator | Oct 10, 2019 | Comments 10
Court cases have finished for two teens arrested in relation to the extensive vandalism in 2018 to gravestones and monuments at Glenwood Cemetery in Picton.
Yesterday, the then 15-year-old Kingston resident, who maintained innocence, was found guilty. The young offender was given 12-months probation and community service hours. The second accused, a then-17-year-old, of Picton, pleaded guilty in July, and and was given a year of probabtion, 80 hours of community service, and counselling.
The Carrera angel placed to watch over six-year-old Ruth Guest, was broken by vandals. Cemetery manager Helma Oonk took it inside the cemetery’s vault to keep the pieces together for repair.
In June 20, 2018, Prince Edward OPP officers were notified of the toppling and breakage of nearly 175 stones, and the permanent destruction of some monuments, including a 100-year-old Celtic cross and a Carrera marble angel. The extent of damage was estimated at close to $200,000.
Following a month long investigation, members of the Prince Edward County OPP Community Street Crime Unit (CSCU) arrested the two males. They were charged with of mischief over $5,000.
The community rallied to raise funds for the Glenwood Cemetery Repair Fund with donations, concerts and fundraisers.
– Glenwood cemetery photo
Forty monuments were restored last fall and prep-work on the foundations of 24 more was completed for restoration this spring. Glenwood staff are hopeful full restoration will be complete by 2020.
As a non-profit, the cemetery’s only revenue is from the sale of graves, commissions from the sale of monuments, bequests, some from the municipality, fundraising and donations.
Donations in support of repairs are still being accepted. Visit Glenwood Cemetery’s website, call 613-476-3511 or email info@glenwoodcemetery.ca
Filed Under: Local News
I’m pretty sure Glenwood has a Perpetual Care clause in older agreements and Care and Maintenance Trust Fund clause in newer agreements (bylaws). It would be up to the Cemetery to go after any cost incurred from damage caused by individuals..
David, the plotholders do not own their plots, just the burial rights to them.
Legally speaking, Glenwood Cemetery does not own the damaged headstones/monuments. They belong to the individual plotholders, as do the burial plots themselves. The headstones/monuments that no longer have ‘active’ plotowners, are know as ‘orphan stones’. Because of ‘public liability’, the Cemetery is responsible to ensure that situations that are possibly dangerous to the public, i.e. toppled headstones/monuments that could be tripped over, are rectified, i.e. re-erected. With no ‘active’ owners to pay for these ‘orphan’ headstones/monuments, it becomes the responsibility of the Cemetery to pay for re-erecting (& repair, if necessary) these headstones/monuments. A little perspective; the 2 weeks (80 hours) ‘Community Service’ ordered by the Court, at the Ontario Minimum Wage of $14.00/hr., equals $1120.00, x 2 = $2240.00, or about 1% of the estimated $200,000 cost to repair the damaged perpetrated in Glenwood Cemetery. 1%!
These kids were old enough to know right from wrong long before the day they decided to wreak havoc in Glenwood. They have no respect for themselves or anyone or anything else. Counselling is a joke. That pair went off the rails long before before the Glenwood incident. Owing to the leniency of our justice system they pretty much got away with what they did and that is very sad.
I sympathize with those who want these two made an example of.
But in our civilized, progressive and forward thinking country what would someone who was 15 or 17 get if they knocked down and kicked an innocent person on the street?
Answer is not much. So how can they do much when all that was involved was stone, and not people?
By that statement I am not trying to diminish the act or the anger those with relatives interred in the cemetery feel resulting from having had their monuments desecrated.
But every time local media reports the names of an accused or sentenced, type that name into Google and see what else that person has done. Usually that wasn’t the first thing they’ve done.
The Justice system is broken. These kids at such a young age just learned what catch and release is, and there’s a good chance that they’ll be in that court again before the victims have paid for the damage they did back in 2018.
The judge let these two off lightly. Why haven’t these families been made to pay for the repairs. Perhaps then the parents would make sure they know what their children are doing. No wonder there is so much of this going on.
Hard to get money where there isn’t any,
It’s a shame. That is why society is falling apart. Punishments don’t fit the crimes. Also why can’t neighbours or other kids say the kids names? A crime like this is not just property damage. These are our parents, grandparents, children.
I am not sure why the cemetery does not go after the boys’ parents for the cost of repairs. They are legally entitled to do so.
The Carrera marble angel has been repaired by the Guest family but owing to its fragility has been removed to private property. The teens responsible got off lightly given the damage the caused, some of it irreparable. Counselling for one boy and a slap on the wrist for both do little to compensate for the consequences of their vandalism spree.