A SEVEN-year-old boy with a mental age of just 18 months has been left confused and upset after hooligans wrecked his favourite play equipment.Glenn Curtis suffers from what is thought to be a unique chromosome disorder that leaves him unable to talk.

A SEVEN-year-old boy with a mental age of just 18 months has been left confused and upset after hooligans wrecked his favourite play equipment.

Glenn Curtis suffers from what is thought to be a unique chromosome disorder that leaves him unable to talk.

Until recently he had also been unable to walk but, in the past few months, he delighted his parents by taking his first independent steps and playing on the train in Crowley Park, Barrett's Road, Neddham Market.

But for the past three weeks, this pleasure has been denied him after nearly £1,000 worth of damage was inflicted on the equipment.

Then vandals returned to completely flatten the train – and send the cost spiralling towards around £3,000.

Town clerk Josephine Lea has now been forced to revise an insurance claim, and said the destruction is "heartbreaking".

Glenn's mum Judith Curtis, of Theobold Close, Needham Market, believes the damage has had a big impact on the town.

"It's just the inconvenience these people have caused and the cost of repairing it. It's disrupted quite a few people's lives in Needham Market, she said.

"We still take Glenn but he gets a little bit upset because he can't go on the train. We tell him that it's broken and he can't go on it but he doesn't seem to understand."

Mrs Curtis took her son to play on the train every Thursday, while her other son, Lee, eight, went to football training on the other side of the park.

"As soon as Glenn gets to the park, he knows where he wants to go and he goes and climbs on the train, she said.

"We used to take him and lift him up and put him down the slide but now he's on his feet he can get up the steps. The train was ideal for him."

Anyone with any information about the crime is asked to call Needham Market's community police officer, Pc Paul Elding, at Suffolk police on 01473 613500 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

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