Bournemouth residents 'horrified' as brothel daubed on homes

Four properties in St Michaels Road in Bournemouth were daubed with red paint and the word "brothel" for the second time in six days.

Residents at Nos 43 to 49 woke to graffiti and red paint on their walls on Friday, July 24, before more properties were hit on Thursday morning.

Residents worked to remove the damage after the street's second paint attack in six days (Image: NQ)

Vandals threw red paint over Cloud9 Guest House in the early hours of the morning.

Owner Janet White said she was "horrified" by the attack on her business.

Ms White said she feared another attack would damage trade.

"It doesn’t help to have ‘brothel’ on my walls," she said.

Janet White said she was 'horrified' by the vandalism (Image: NQ)

An anonymous resident whose home was vandalised for the second time in less than a week said: "My children want me to move away and I won’t."

She added: "I’m going to be 80 on my birthday and this kind of thing, somebody my age… I just can’t cope."

The vandals appear to have targeted No 47 but sloshed paint over three other properties in their criminal damage rampage (Image: NQ)

The attack appears to have targeted No 47, with arrows sprayed on the ground pointing at the property.

In pictures shown to the Echo, the inside of the property was defaced with paint on Friday morning.

Spanish holidaymaker Francisco Estevan said it was "really scary" when he woke after his family’s first night at the property and saw the damage.

'Brothel' was spraypainted and red paint splattered on at least four properties in St Michaels Road in in the early hours of Friday morning (Image: NQ)

Mr Estevan said: "I’m here with my wife and two children and we don’t know whether we are going to stay or leave and go to another place."

The family had planned to stay in Bournemouth for 10 days but were considering leaving.

"I don’t know, because I’m not quite sure if we can find any other place," he added.

"We paid a lot of money for this."

Another St Michaels Road guesthouse owner, whose property was untouched, said: "It’s affecting a number of places down here.

"I feel worse for the people that it’s happened to but if this keeps happening it’s going to affect trade in the area."

Dorset Police first received reports of the criminal damage at 8.46am on July 30.

Police believe vandals caused the damage between 1am and 7am on Thursday.

Police confirmed this was the second red-paint and graffiti attack on a St Michaels Road property in six days.

No arrests have been made and police enquiries continue.

Properties have been vandalised this way before.

Last year, a residential block in Norwich Avenue West and the Paint n Game shop in Albert Road were daubed with paint and the word "brothel" in incidents police believed were linked.