Pre-school’s toys covered in glass after vandalism

Police are looking into the incident.

Staff of Little Buttons Pre-School entered the Castel Church hall on Wednesday to find large amounts of glass shattered across the play room and toys.

‘There was glass absolutely everywhere, all over the children’s toys and we’ve had to throw quite a few of them away,’ said pre-school manager Heidi de Mouilpied.

‘The room couldn’t be used at all, and the children had to be outside all day.’

Once the police had taken pictures of the damage, it took pre-school staff about four hours to clean up all the shards of glass.

They had just been having a clear out, and outside the pre-school was a one-tonne bag of items to get rid of, including the frying pan.

‘The frying pan was hidden, so someone must have searched through the bag,’ she said.

‘The windows are high up and double-glazed, so I think it would have taken a couple of shots before it smashed.’

The broken window has been boarded up for safety.

This is not an isolated incident of vandalism for the pre-school.

Almost a year ago, 10 plant pots outside the pre-school were smashed on four separate occasions within a month.

At that time they had hoped the installation of CCTV cameras would not be necessary, with concerns over the large expense.

It is believed that the window was smashed some time between 2.30pm on Tuesday and 8.30am on Wednesday.

Anyone with information of the incident should contact PC 109 De Sousa in 222222 or contact Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.