CALLOUS pranksters are believed to be responsible for positioning a portable toilet on top of a double grave at a cemetery in Kinson.

At the end of June the portable toilet was delivered at the graveyard in East Howe Lane next to the Co-operative store, which is the former site of East Howe United Reformed Church.

But in what appears to be a cold-hearted practical joke, the cabin was moved from its original position and placed on top of two graves last week.

Cllr Dennis Gritt, ward member for Kinson North, said he was ‘horrified’ after making the discovery.

“I went down with members of the North Bournemouth Crime Prevention Panel and we were disgusted,” he said.

“It’s completely disrespectful. The people I have spoken to are absolutely horrified. It’s consecrated ground.”

The toilet, which is leased by the owners of the cemetery, the URC Wessex Trust, is being used by teams carrying out maintenance works at the sacred ground under Dorset Probation Trust’s Community Pay Back scheme.

Stuart McClain, director of the URC Wessex Trust, told the Daily Echo the portable toilet has now been repositioned away from the graves.

He said: “The URC is saddened to learn that having been delivered and appropriately sited within the burial ground, the portable toilet has subsequently been inappropriately re-sited by someone else.

“The portable toilet has now been returned and secured to the ground at its original location with security wire to prevent it being moved again.”

Pauline Hardwick, director of the Christchurch-based firm Abbas Cabins Ltd, which leases the cabin, said: “We would never have placed it on top of the graves. It’s really disrespectful and something we just wouldn’t do.”