THAT any crime takes place in our cemeteries is bad enough.

But shocking details, exclusively revealed by the Telegraph & Argus today, show that the list of offences recorded by police in the Bradford district include a rape, which remains unsolved, child sex abuse, robbery, arson and drug trafficking.

And on top of those, there is, much more commonly, thefts, vandalism, and, yes, even fly-tipping.

Sadly, too many times in our pages, we have had to carry reports of bereaved families left bereft by thefts from graves or, in thankfully rarer cases, the desecration of graves.

The sanctity of cemeteries and graveyards must, of course, be protected but surely it should not have to be at all cost?

We would all hope that people of all faiths or creeds - or even none - would have in them a basic respect for those who have lost their lives, and for their relatives and friends who mourn and grieve for them.

To our great shame, of course, that doesn’t always happen and, as a result, many of our cemeteries, which are often secluded places, have to be secured by locked gates or, in some cases, even by CCTV systems.

But society is not all bad, of course.

Groups like Friends of the Deceased, which helps with the upkeep of Scholemoor Cemetery in Bradford and was a winner in last year’s T&A Community Stars Awards, deserve our fulsome praise for the community-spirited work they do.

But, in stark contrast, those who choose to commit their crimes in such hallowed places really are the lowest of the low.