North Walsham graffiti

Police are closing in on a would-be wit who has been plastering a north Norfolk market town with out-of-the-ordinary graffiti slogans since the beginning of the year.

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Instead of the usual obscenities, or ‘tags’ – a graffiti artist’s stylised signature – pedestrians in North Walsham have been confronted 
with spray-can posers such as ‘Hold that Thought’, ‘We are the Punchline’ and ‘Something in Common’ on 
walls and road signs around the town.

Police investigated one graffiti site in Market Place, reported in early January, and went on to identify a further 19 around the town.

Chief Insp Neil Baily told the latest North Walsham Town Council meeting that officers had recently pinpointed the shop where the Walsham wordsmith was buying his paint supplies.

The back of the perpetrator’s head had also been caught on CCTV one night and two youths had given the police descriptions after seeing him at work on a wall at the town’s library, according to Chief Insp Baily.

“It may not be the normal mindless rubbish but this amount of graffiti is a significant issue for the town,” he added.

Out of 37 reported crimes in North Walsham during the month leading up to January 25, 18 were incidents of criminal damage which included graffiti.

Members of the town’s Safer Neighbourhood Team have also been working with schools to identify the person responsible.

Chief Insp Baily said a culprit who had committed some 200 graffiti offences had once been caught in Wymondham after a teacher recognised the tell-tale ‘tag’ decorating the cover of his exercise books as the same symbol which was scrawled on sites throughout the town.

Some of the North Walsham graffiti has already been cleaned up by young offenders through the Norfolk Youth Offending Team.

Speaking after the meeting Chief Insp Baily said overall crime in the North Walsham district, which includes Stalham and all surrounding villages, was down 17pc since April 1 last year, representing one of the steepest reductions in the whole of the Norfolk Constabulary.

He praised the community for their support which he said played a significant part in helping police catch criminals.

“With these sort of lower-level crimes we get an enormous 
amount of help from the general public and it means we can identify problems at an early stage. We will get there in the end with this one too,” he added.

Anyone with information can contact the North Walsham Safer Neighbourhood Team on 0845 456 4567 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.