YOUNGSTERS at a Bolton family support centre have been left heartbroken after callous thieves carried away their giant, purpose-built rabbit hutch.

The outdoor hutch at Derby Family Support Centre, on Pilkington Street, measures six foot by four foot and needs at least four people to lift it.

Centre worker Debra Corkin, explained: "It must have taken quite some planning to have got the hutch over our fence and then a vehicle had to have been used to carry it away.

"To think somebody has actually planned something as cruel as this is unbelievable - it is sick.

"These people have robbed the children. Almost everything we have here has been raised by them, in sponsored toddles and things like that.

"The hutch will have appeared somewhere this morning. It is huge and there is no way it could go unnoticed.

"Thankfully, the rabbits were taken inside before staff went home, or they would have been gone too."

The theft comes after a spate of vandalism and break-ins at the centre which deals with children - often with special needs - under the age of four.

Debra said: "We are raising money all the time, but are falling victim to vandals time and time again. This has been the final straw.

"Cars parked in our car park are constantly broken into or vandalised. A few months ago we had a slab of concrete thrown through our window at night. Nothing was taken, but the slab just thrown in for the sake of mindless vandalism.

"There is a derelict house behind our grounds and although we have complained that it needs to be made safe, it remains a danger."

Anyone who knows where the hutch is should contact Bolton Police on 0161 872 5050, or the Centre on 370190.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.