CCTV footage and forensic evidence is being examined as officers hunt for the culprits who painted the words ‘legalize weed’ across the roof, signing it ‘L.A boyz’.
It comes as the force and the Fire and Rescue Service are investigating two suspicious fires that occurred over the weekend just days after the police announced they were investigating as many as a dozen unexplained blazes so far this year.
A car was set alight and suffered ‘extensive damage’ at the Jardin d’Olivet car park in Trinity while two public bins were also found to be on fire in St Catherine.
Both blazes occurred between late Friday evening and early Saturday morning and police suspect the graffiti incident occurred during a similar time. It is not believed the incidents are connected.
Jo Mousdale, Fort Regent centre manager, said the vandals have ‘put their lives at risk’ by climbing onto the roof.
‘I think anybody who is determined enough can get up there but it is obviously very dangerous,’ she said. ‘What has disappointed us the most is that those people have put their lives at risk to do something so stupid. We discovered it on Saturday afternoon and contacted the police. Our team have been working to remove it and it is not an insignificant cost to the Fort to clear it up – it is not a message that we want to be associated with.’
It is hoped that the graffiti will be removed from the dome today.
Mrs Mousdale added: ‘Obviously we need to ensure the safety of the team when they are removing it and it has had some impact on our working plans for today because our technical team have had to be redirected to deal with this.’
Meanwhile, the police are appealing for anybody with any information concerning the two fires to contact them.
Last week the police announced that they and the Fire and Rescue Service were investigating as many as 12 fires dating back to February. Among those under investigation is the recent furze fire at Les Landes, which scorched an area almost the size of two football pitches and was described as the ‘biggest countryside blaze of the year’.
Martin Allix, director of emergency response for the Fire and Rescue Service, said he was unable to say if the fires at the weekend were linked to each other or any of the other blazes currently under investigation.
‘In terms of these fires they have occurred in what we say are clusters. The investigation is led by police and together we treat every fire individually. If we have reason to believe it is doubtful, or in other words we think it is started deliberately, then an investigation will occur. We support police and they decide criminality while we continue to feed in technical support and feed in whatever way we can. In terms of investigating clusters they will approach us for some technical support but it is not our job to identify patterns.’
The States police said it was unclear whether the fires were linked and are appealing for anyone with information to contact them in 612612 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
The force were unavailable to provide further comment on their investigations.
