GRIEVING parents have been left sickened by callous thieves who stole toys and mementos left on their baby daughter's grave.

The grave robbers have been desecrating the grave of Jessica Louise Booth, who died a year ago when she was five-and-a-half months old.

She was born with health problems, including under-developed lungs and stomach, and remained in the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle, until her death.

Jessica's mother, Katie Beagle, said she had noticed at least six times that toys had gone missing from her daughter's grave, in West Cemetery, Darlington.

Miss Beagle and Jessica's father, John-Paul Booth, who are no longer together, have been angered and sickened by the callousness of the thieves.

Items which have been stolen include a Winnie-the-Pooh solar lamp, which was bought by Miss Beagle's sister for Jessica and has a personal message written on the base.

The thieves have even moved a picture of Miss Beagle and her daughter to steal some of the items.

Miss Beagle said she thought they were deliberately selecting items.

"They are choosing particular things to take, because now they have taken the whole Winnie-the-Pooh family," she said.

She said that she had not yet chosen a headstone for her daughter because she was afraid of what would happen to it.

Items have been stolen in the run-up to Mother's Day, near Easter, and most recently, last week.

Last night, Miss Beagle, 24, appealed to the thieves to leave her daughter's grave alone.

"It is awful. Whoever is doing this has gone a bit too far," she said.

"We have basically just had enough. Personally, I would like them to put some sort of security system in."

She added: "I feel so angry, but there is no one there to shout at. Every single time, I am in tears."

Inspector Alan Davidson, of Darlington police, said: "It beggars belief what would motivate someone to cause this kind of distress to someone who is already experiencing a terrible loss.

"If residents in the Darlington area are visiting the cemetery and they see any suspicious behaviour, we would urge them to report it."

Mr Booth said: "It is a really terrible thing to have done. It has really upset Katie and everyone else.

"People have no consideration. After what we have gone through. It is not nice to anyone to lose someone . . . and then this."

He added: "I think if the people responsible returned what they took it would be very nice."

A spokeswoman for Darlington Borough Council, which runs the cemetery, said: "We are very sorry to hear about what has happened in West Cemetery.

"We have not had any other reports of similar thefts but obviously we take cases like this seriously.

"There are no plans to put CCTV in the cemetery, but we will talk to the police and work with our uniformed wardens to increase patrols in the area."