A MEMORIAL to two fathers in Blackburn has been destroyed in what is believed to be a vandal attack.

Susan Bellusci, of Princess Gardens in Feniscowles, said she was “devastated” after a tree and plaque dedication to her sons was broken.

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Warren Melling, who died in 2004 at the age of 27, and Nicholas Melling, who committed suicide at the age of 34 in 2010, are buried together at Pleasington Cemetery, off Tower Road.

On Father’s Day their children – Warren’s daughter Ocean, 15, and Nicholas’ son Tyler, seven – found the tree snapped and broken.

Susan said: “We just don’t understand how anyone can even think about doing something like this.”

Tyler’s mum Emma Whiteside, of Clarendon Road, Little Hardwood, said the children were dumbstruck.

The 33-year-old said: “They went up to see their dads on Father’s Day to put some presents and gifts on the graves.

“Tyler had got a memorial card and a wind chime with ‘Special Dad’ on it and Ocean also had a card.

“But when they got there the belt had been cut and the tree had been forced down so badly that the stones and the mud had been lifted.

“Susan is absolutely devastated because it’s her only sons’ tree.

“It makes her feel better going up there.

“Tyler came home and said, ‘How could someone do that to someone’s dad’s tree’.

“He was very quiet that day.”

Susan, 56, says it is the second time that a memorial to Warren has been destroyed.

In August 2005 a wooden plinth baring his name had only been in place in Queen’s Park, Blackburn, for two weeks before it was ransacked.

It was located close to a waterfall where he often took Ocean to play near to their home in Newton Street.

His mother was given special permission from Blackburn with Darwen Council’s parks department to create a lasting memory because Ocean had struggled to deal with the death of her father.

But vandals knocked lumps out of the wooden base and hammered huge dints into the metal plaque, which featured a tribute to Warren.

Susan said: “We took the one in Queen’s Park down rather than upsetting Ocean again.

Warren Melling, a recovering addict, died in December 2004, as a result of heroin abuse just days before he was due to go into rehab.