VANDALS have turned a popular kiddie's area into a "sexual playground" daubed with graffiti, claims red-faced residents.Gangs of teenagers use the playground in Finbars Walk, Ipswich, for sexual high jinks and then brag about their prowess in obscene messages.

By GEORGINA WROE

georgina.wroe@eveningstar.co.uk

VANDALS have turned a popular children's area into a "sexual playground" daubed with graffiti, claim red-faced residents.

Gangs of teenagers use the playground in Finbars Walk, Ipswich, for sexual high jinks and then brag about their prowess in obscene messages.

One grandmother, who asked not to be named, was horrified by what she found when she took her three-year-old granddaughter to play on the swings.

She said: "I couldn't believe it. The fence was broken and the gate was off but much worse was the sexual graffiti daubed all over the place."

The pensioner, a retired nurse, went on: "I think they have turned it into a sexual playground and then write about it afterwards. I haven't seen any condoms on the ground but it wouldn't surprise me if there were some. It is such a pity it was such a lovely little area and now I'm afraid to take my granddaughter there."

It is the second time the playground, opposite Alexandra Park on Grove Lane, has been damaged by thugs.

Finbars Walk resident Janice Abraham said: "There is a lot of trouble. You hear girls screaming in the early hours and immediately think something terrible has happened.

"When they cleaned the area it was full of beer bottles and condoms. The language you hear from there is terrible."

Joanne Webber, whose house is next door to the playground, said: "You often hear them in the early hours at the weekend.

"I'm pretty sure they don't come from around here but it's an odd place for them to congregate."