THE family and friends of murdered Michelle Samaraweera are distraught that flowers placed in a park on her birthday were destroyed by vandals.

Bouquets tied to railings in the play ground in Queen's Road, Walthamstow, to commemorate what would have been her thirty-sixth birthday last Tuesday, were discovered by her boyfriend just days later dumped in a waste bin.

They had been left in the spot where two months ago on Thursday Michelle was raped and strangled, prompting a massive murder investigation.

Mr Dale's mum, Janice Dale, said: “No one has the right to put them in the bin. They were left with love and people have taken them away.

“It is so upsetting for us and her family. You see flowers where ever you go to mark where someone has had a road accident and people don't move them.”

Mrs Dale said her son was distraught, as were Michelle's mum and sisters who had also left flowers, “to keep her memory alive” and to remind the community of the dreadful unsolved murder.

She added: “We have got to live with what happened and people should not forget what awful thing happened there and should be made aware of the dangers.”

One of Michelle's three sisters, Ann Chandradasa, 37, said: “I was very upset. I can't believe someone would do something so horrible to Michelle's memory.”

She said that despite feeling very sad about the anniversary, both families came together to mark Michelle's birthday and had a cake and sang happy birthday for her.

The mum-of-two said: “It was hard having her first birthday without her. It was the first anniversary we had to deal with, just nine weeks after she died.

“But we had a nice family day together and Michelle would have liked us to be happy.”

Ms Chandradasa said the celebration was marred by a phone call the following day from police saying a fourth rape was now being linked to Michelle's killer.

She said: “I don't understand why the community were not told about this and the other rapes before or why they were not linked by the police sooner. It might have prevented Michelle from being killed.

“That is the only thing I am pretty angry about because it appears to have been happening for months and months. I'm angry about that and the fact the play area wasn't locked at that time and there was no CCTV.”

A spokeswoman for Waltham Forest Council, which owns the play ground, confirmed that the flowers were not removed by park wardens.