Veterans jeer Blackpool woman who urinated on memorial Published duration 20 August 2010

A woman who urinated on a war memorial in Blackpool and performed a sex act nearby has been barracked by veterans.

Wendy Lewis, 32, of Princess Street, Blackpool, was due to be sentenced at the town's magistrates court earlier.

Lewis was last week convicted in her absence of outraging public decency.

As she arrived at the court, she swore at the veterans - some of whom called her "disgusting" - but left the building before the hearing began. A warrant has been issued for her arrest.

'Guard of dishonour'

Lewis was caught on CCTV urinating on the memorial on 7 May, before performing a sex act on a man in public.

Among the veterans forming a "guard of dishonour" outside the court was former Royal Marine James Baker, 88, who served with 544 Assault Brigade and won the Distinguished Service Medal.

As an 18-year-old, his unit of 38 Marines was the first on to Juno Beach on D-Day as a leading party for Canadian troops.

image caption Wendy Lewis was found guilty of outraging public decency

Badly wounded, only he and one other Marine made it off the beach alive.

Mr Baker said: "In both world wars the young men, and women, have honoured their country and done their duty.

"And this female, I nearly called her a lady, has disgraced her sex.

"It is unforgivable what she did in the face of these dead men.

"It can be neither forgiven nor forgotten by the ex-services community, and the wider community as well."

On learning that magistrates had issued a warrant for Lewis's arrest, Maj Jim Houldsworth, 68, formerly of the Royal Artillery, said: "It just shows the same contempt for the veterans that she shows for the court."

Derrick Wyeld, 87, who served from 1941 to 1946 on Lancaster Bombers with 460 Squadron of the Australian RAF, said: "She is clearly a cowardly person who can't face her accusers.

"It is disgusting, we feel the cenotaph represents the gravestones of the people who were left behind.

"Fifty-five per cent of RAF crew were killed in the war and thousands of them have no known grave. These sort of things, cenotaphs, are their memorials."