VANDALS have repeatedly targeted a community centre, outraging staff by wrecking a memorial bench.

The wooden seat cannot be patched up as the spiteful yobs have made off with the broken sections.

A bird bath was also damaged beyond repair in the night-time attacks on Colchester's High Woods community centre, which have seen walls and exterior doors sprayed with crude graffiti.

St John's and High Woods Community Association will have to raise cash to fund the removal of the slogans and the replacement of the garden furniture.

Manager Heather Payne said the discovery of the damaged bench was a particularly bitter blow as it had been donated by a volunteer at the centre, in memory of her late husband.