Edith Wood, 65, was just six when her father Jesse Stevenson Link, 44, died in the 1951 Easington pit disaster.

A rose tree has been planted at the Garden of Remembrance at the Easington Colliery Cemetery, in Crawlaw Road, in memory of Mr Link, of the colliery's Anthony Street.

Edith visited her father's grave on May 29, the 58th anniversary of the disaster, and saw flowers budding, which she thought would be in full bloom by Father's Day.

But when she returned at the weekend, she was left devastated after she saw the tree had its flowers cut off and bare stems showing.

The grandmother-of-four and great-grandmother-of-one, from Blackhall, said: "People have no respect. There's no thought for anyone. Those miners gave their lives. How anybody could do this I do not know. I couldn't stop crying when I saw."

Former factory worker Edith, who has two daughters, Alison Swales, Janette Yildrum and a son called Michael Wood, said: "I lost my dad in the Easington pit disaster and my mam, Edith has been gone for 30 years.

"My brother, Harry, who died six years ago, planted the rose tree 58 years ago and every year it has bloomed. I went to the grave on May 29 and there must have been two or three buds ready to come out.

"I said to my daughter 'they will all be out for Father's Day'.

"But I went to the cemetery on Saturday and someone has cut every rose off the tree. There's always two or three dozen roses coming out, but there's not one rose left. Whoever did it has probably made a bunch of flowers up."

Tony Forster, the clerk of Easington Colliery Parish Council, which runs the cemetery, said: "We don't think what happened is something that we feel is an act of wanton vandalism against that area.

"We are sensitive to the resident's concerns and will keep an eye on the area and take appropriate action if anything happens."