TRIBUTES left for a motorcyclist found dead on a cycle track have been burned by vandals.
Eric Walker, 26, of West Green, Sealand, was found near an off-road motorbike on the Millennium path running alongside Dock Road, Connah’s Quay, last October.
A Manchester United flag signed by his family and friends, which was left at the scene, along with floral tributes and photographs, was set on fire over the weekend.
His distraught mother Christine Thomson, 49, told the Leader: “It turns my stomach that somebody could do this.
“When I first heard it knocked me sick. As if it’s not enough that I have lost my son, now this.”
Mrs Thomson, who lives in Runcorn, was told about the vandalism by her son Darryl Oxton, 31, of Sealand.
She suspects the flag could have been targeted by a Liverpool FC fan, following their 2-1 defeat by Manchester United at Old Trafford on the weekend.
She said: “I had asked my son to take the flag down anyway because it had begun to deteriorate in the wet weather, and that’s how we knew it had been set on fire.
“There were no grudges held against Eric, so it was probably kids messing around but that doesn’t take away from the fact they have done it.”
Mr Walker, a former pupil at Halton High School, Runcorn, was pronounced dead at the scene in the early hours of October 30.
North Wales Police are not treating the death as suspicious.
Mrs Thomson, who had planned to install a memorial bench at the scene, has now had second thoughts.
“We had been given the go-ahead by Flintshire Council for a memorial bench, but we won’t be doing that at all after this,” she added.
“All of Eric’s family and friends have chipped in for the bench so I don’t know what we will do now.”
Sealand councillor Christine Jones is urging anyone with information to call police.
“This is just horrific,” she said.
“It was really sad what happened and now this has dragged it all up again for his family and friends.
“These people have no respect for the community or anyone in it.
“His family and friends worked really hard to raise money for that memorial bench and this has ruined it for them.”