THE mother of a man who drowned in a lake has branded vandals who damaged life-saving equipment there as “disrespectful”.

June Bartlett – whose son James, 37, drowned last August – said the damage to two buoyancy aids on Witney Lake was “mindless vandalism”.

The £187 aids were believed to have been ripped apart by partying youths on the night of June 14.

Grandmother-of-nine Mrs Bartlett, of Corn Street, Witney, said: “They are there to help save lives so it just seems pointless and mindless vandalism.

Mr Bartlett, a former Henry Box School pupil, was found by police divers after he went swimming between the evening of July 31 and the next morning.