POLICE are appealing for witnesses after a 79-year-old woman was robbed as she visited her husband’s grave at Petersfield Cemetery.

A man approached the woman as she was in the cemetery off Ramshill at around 12.45pm on Sunday. He asked her for some change but she told him she didn’t have any.

He then tried to grab her purse and hit her hand to try to make her let go but she held on to it.

The attacker did manage to take £15 from the purse after the struggle before running off towards Ramshill.

The attacker is described as white, aged around 30 and about 5ft 6ins tall. He was very thin with a pale complexion and wearing a dark blue or black knee length coat with a hood that was up.

The victim, who wished to remain anonymous, was left “very shaken” by the incident, according to a police spokesman. She had gone to the graveyard to place fresh flowers on her husband’s grave.

Detective Constable Simon Poulter said: “It’s hard to believe someone would stoop so low as to rob someone as they were visiting their loved one’s grave.

“I would ask the man who did this to take a very long hard look at himself and to show some genuine remorse for what he has done by giving himself up. It will be much better for him than waiting for us to come and arrest him.”

Anyone with any information, who saw anything or anyone acting suspiciously around the time of the robbery, should call Dc?Poulter at Basingstoke on 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

n Two men have been charged following a series of criminal damage reports to vehicles and other property on the A272 Petersfield to Winchester Road during May and September.

Alec Hammerton, 42, of Fieldmere Close, Witney, Oxfordshire, and Damon Jennings, 43, of Manorfileds Road, Milton Keynes, have both been charged with conspiracy to damage or destroy property as part of this investigation.

Mr Hammerton has been bailed to appear at Basingstoke Magistrates Court on December 8. Mr Jennings has been bailed to appear at the same court on December 10.