A graffiti criminal on a mission to deface historic landmarks across the city is causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.
Over the past four months, residents have contacted the police more than 100 times after buildings across Chester and Ellesmere Port were ‘tagged’ with graffiti.
In a series of ‘mindless’ attacks the vandal scrawled his tag across Chester’s famous monuments, defacing doors and walls on the historic Rows and the Amphitheatre.
And in one unofficial report the vandal’s ‘tag’, reading DAKA or JAKA, was allegedly sprayed on a monument to commemorate Hillsborough disaster victims in Port Sunlight, Wirral .
Police are still searching for the vandal, who has targeted at least 70 areas in Chester and 40 in Ellesmere Port.
With the council employing a stone mason for £700 a day every time graffiti is sprayed on historic sites across the city, it is thought the ‘tagging’ could have cost the city thousands of pounds so far.
Police have now released a new image of the suspected vandal after he was caught on CCTV scrawling the mark on Bridge Street Row on Friday morning – while eating a pasty.
The man, thought to be in his early 20s, is white, about 5ft 9in tall, with long black hair.
In September, police were inundated with responses via social media sites from the public claiming to have seen the tag, after an image of the suspected vandal was placed on Twitter and in the Chronicle .
Appealing to the public to help find the vandal, who is thought to live in the Ellesmere Port area, PC Steve Hannam slated the vandal as ‘despicable’, saying: “Spraying graffiti on the Rows falls into the heritage crime category.
“We have had reports from an individual on Twitter the Hillsborough monument had been targeted. They took a picture and it had his ‘tag’ on it,” said PC Hannam.
“It is distasteful, it is destroying some of the history of the city and is defacing monuments which mean a lot to people around here.
“Someone knows this person, we need them to let us know who they are so that we can deal with them, before any more damage is done to the city’s heritage.”
Lionel Bolland, chief executive of Port Sunlight Village Trust, said he was not aware of the Hillsborough monument in the village being marked with the specific tag, saying: “I regret to say they get a bit from time to time.”
Cheshire West and Chester Council spokesperson Rachel Ashley said: “A recent graffiti attack in Northgate Bridge cost �2,000 to repair.
“The council has to employ a stonemason who works with an assistant at a cost of £700 a day, it generally takes two to three days to remove a small area of graffiti.”
Anyone with any information is urged to contact Cheshire police on 101.
