Vandals target memorial

A grieving mother said vandals who defaced a memorial to her teenage son may as well have jumped on the boy’s grave.

Christine O’Neill was heartbroken when she discovered the mural, painted just seven weeks ago in honour of her son Jesse Phillis, had been damaged and scrawled with obscenities.

“I hope whoever has done this can look at themselves in the mirror and know what they have done,” Miss O’Neill said.

“What kind of person does something like that?

“They may as well have jumped on Jesse’s grave.”

Jesse, who was described by friends as “awesome,” was killed when the car he was travelling in was knocked into the path of ongoing traffic on the morning of Sunday, June 23.

Miss O’Neill said her son, who lived in Serpentine with her and his two siblings, was on a short trip to buy purple hair dye with his girlfriend when the accident happened.

“When the police appeared at my home to inform me, I told them that they must have had the wrong boy, and just collapsed on to the ground and screamed,” Miss O’Neill said.

“It’s any parent’s worst nightmare.”

The following day, Jesse’s childhood friend Shaan Kavanagh got together with others who knew and loved the teenager and started work on a memorial painting at Rockingham’s PCYC skate park, a favourite hangout of the skateboarding and BMX enthusiast.

“Jesse was so full of life. He was this bouncy, energetic character,” Shaan said.

“He was pretty full on. He was awesome.”

Shaan and other friends of Jesse spent the day painting the mural, which featured Jesse’s face, complete with purple hair dye, and the names of his friends and family.

“It was such a heart-warming thing for them to do,” Miss O’Neill said. “They worked well into the night, using the headlights of their cars to keep going after it got dark.

“It took them three days to finish it.” After hearing the memorial was tarnished with swear words, Shaan returned on Friday from a holiday in Melbourne, specifically to repair the damage.

“We just couldn’t believe someone could do that,” Miss O’Neill said. “The City came along and removed some of the swear words, which was good of them, but whoever has done this just totally wrecked it.”