adminCemetery, Cambridge, while injecting themselves and drinking.
The site has been plagued by drunkenness, littering, drug taking and reports of the homeless people defecating on the plots over recent months.
In a statement for Cambridgeshire Police, PC Alan Tregilgas said: “It is not unusual to find drunken persons sleeping in this area and in some cases tombstone lids have been pushed off so they can sleep inside.
One resident said she was shocked when she saw a male sitting on a grave with his trousers down injecting himself in his thigh in full view of everyone.”
Families of those buried at the site have demanded that the homeless be removed from the graveyard in the famous university city. Cambridgeshire Police are considering taking action against nearby shops accused of fuelling the anti-social behaviour by selling alcohol to the louts.
Residents say they now avoid the graveyard, once regarded as a local beauty spot, and take the longer route around it because they feel it is unsafe.
Street drinkers, many of them homeless, have also been accused of intimidating pupils at a nearby St Matthew’s Primary School.
PC Alan Tregilgas said there were also concerns over homeless people damaging the site and allowing vicious dogs to run free.
The shocking sightings come as latest figures show an increase of 23 percent in those sleeping rough in the UK for 2010-11.
Gail Marchant-Paisley, a city councillor for the Petersfield area of Cambridge, said problems with anti-social behaviour in the cemetery were long-standing but seemed to be getting worse.
“There is great concern for those residents whose houses back on to the cemetery,” she said. “I have heard residents say that people are sleeping in the tombs, which may be linked to an increase in the number of homeless in the city.” Cambridgeshire police have spoken out about the problems in a bid to ban alcohol sales at a local shop, which they claim is a magnet for troublemakers.
They say drinkers visit the shop, then access the cemetery via an alleyway opposite.
The police will present evidence to city councillors in a week, when they will decide whether to revoke the shop’s licence. — Daily Mail.
Online Reporter