Keetha Allaway, right, with Valentina Locci at Islington and St Pancras Cemetery

BEREAVED families have had flowers, photographs and balloons removed from the graves of their murdered relatives by cemetery services who say the items do not meet the “rules and regulations for memorialisation”.

Managers have been accused of a gross lack of sensitivity after ruling that the decorations that go beyond certain dimensions at plots at Islington & St Pancras Cemetery must be cleared.

One grave which has been entirely cleared of memorial items is that of Imani Allaway-Muir, who was murdered in a shocking case of mistaken identity on the Westbourne Estate near Roman Way in July 2020, aged 22.

His mother, Keetha Allaway, told the Tribune: “We’ve got nothing left to do for our children. We can’t buy them presents, we can’t give them a birthday cake, all we can do is decorate their resting place.

“Now I’ve not even got a vase to put my son’s flowers. They’re robbing us of that. We’re robbed already, our children were murdered.”

Ms Allaway had received letters from the Islington and Camden Cemetery Services (ICCS) with a deadline to remove photo banners, balloons, flowers and ornaments from her son’s grave and the adjacent bench.

She paid for two plots and the bench so that she could sit by the graveside without bothering anybody else, but, while the seating is allowed, managers said she could not decorate it with vinyl pictures.

Imani Allaway-Muir was killed in 2020

Ms Allaway was told flowers and ornaments also had to go, and she began removing many of the items.

But this week she came back to her son’s grave to find that even items underneath the bench, including fresh flowers, a small watering can and a photo of Imani, had been removed, leaving the plot completely bare.

“What is the justification for this?” she said.

“When Imani was alive he never looked a mess, ever. His bedroom was never a mess, why in his death would I let my son be a mess? These are vibrant young children, we want to reflect that.”

Ms Allaway added: “I cannot have my son’s grave looking like this. It looks unloved, it’s plain and cold and that is never what we want to portray for him. He’s loved, so loved. And so very much missed.”

The frustration for Ms Allaway and others is that a look across the cemetery suggests the policy is not being enforced in the same way across all of the graves.

When the Tribune visited the site in East Finchley this week, there were many plots with large decorations which had been left alone.

Other gravesides had been tampered with and cemetery services had removed small wooden boxes and fences from some graves – including that of a teenage girl buried earlier this year.

Another grieving mother, Valentina Locci, whose 15-year-old son Leonardo Reid was fatally stabbed in Archway last summer and is also buried at Islington & St Pancras Cemetery, also hit out at the cemetery services.

She said: “It’s disgusting. There’s no sensitivity, there’s no care. It’s just a business. Well it might be a business to you, but these are our loved ones.

How Imani’s mother left the grave (left) …and what she came back to find

“As long as my feet touch this ground, I’m always going to be putting a balloon for my son on his birthday.”

She added: “They made [Ms Allaway] take the pictures off a tree, but then look at some of the other trees ­– they have pictures. None of it makes sense. They are hurting people.”

It is not the first time Ms Allaway has felt frustrated with the cemetery service. Last year she filed a complaint with Islington after alleging that she had been asked to allow Imani’s body and coffin to be exhumed.

She said she was told managers wanted graves to be reorganised so they were in a uniform direction.

“Imagine what that would do to me mentally to bring back my son’s coffin,” she said.
When the Tribune asked the council about this, press officials refuted that this request had been made and said that Ms Allaway’s complaint had not been upheld.

In another case, Alix Christie-Hymas, whose parents are both buried at Islington & St Pancras Cemetery, said she had been told to remove flowers around her parents’ graves.

“I’ve never come across anyone so insensitive,” she said.

“It’s just a money-making scheme to them that cemetery, there’s no compassion.”

Ms Christie-Hymas had to arrange for her father’s headstone to be removed in order for her to bury her mother – who died earlier this year – with him.

Ms Allaway, pictured with Valentina Locci, paid for two plots in the cemetery so she could purchase a bench and sit next to her murdered son’s grave without disturbing anyone

She was also asked by cemetery services to remove an oasis – an array of flowers – that said her mother’s name on it, because it was “outside her 7’x3’”.

“I thought to myself, ‘are you having a laugh?’ There are so many graves up there that are infringing,” Ms Christie-Hymas said.

She has to wait 12 months for the earth to settle before her parents’ headstone can be put back in place, but in the meantime, she said, it has been “dumped” at different places around the cemetery, making it visibly un-uniform.

While the publicly-owned cemetery is in Barnet, its management is shared by Islington and Camden.

Islington’s environment chief Councillor Rowena Champion said: “We know our cemeteries are extremely important places for those who have lost loved ones, and we work hard to ensure that they are well maintained.

“Space in our cemeteries is limited, and we have policies to ensure that everyone’s space is respected.

“As part of the maintenance of our cemetery grounds, we ask people to ensure that memorials are kept within the bounds of the grave space of their loved ones.

“The placement of unauthorised memorials or items creates a series of issues including, grass cutting and grounds maintenance as well as health and safety implications for our visitors and staff.”

Get it right! Imani was shot in mistaken identity horror

KEETHA Allaway has regularly criticised the media coverage of her son’s murder ­and asked national papers to be more careful about reporting the facts of the case.

He was shot in a case of mistaken idea and had no links to any gang activity.

She said she felt dismayed again when a recent article in the Daily Mail added his story into a piece about 20 parents who had lost loved ones to knife crime ­– even though Imani had died in a shooting. “We’re not nit-picking,” she said. “These are our babies and they were murdered. It’s important that you get it right.”