SCHOOLCHILDREN were devastated after their hard work was destroyed by graffiti vandals.

Pupils from Chalkwell Hall Junior School, in London Road, Westcliff, painted hoardings along Eastern Esplanade, Southend, with seaside images and anti-litter messages - only to return the next day to find their efforts had been ruined.

Street artist, John Bulley, who was working on the paintings with the pupils, said: “How would you tell you explain that to the kids?

“The kids put in a huge amount of hard work and came back to finish it off on Tuesday to find it had been totally destroyed.

“Needless to say, the kids and teachers were really disappointed.

“This is a community wall and anyone is allowed to work on it but it only works if people respect other people’s work, especially when its children.”

The brazen culprits appear to have identified themselves by spraying their tag names on the wall.

Mr Bulley added: “They use the tag names Reso, Mace and Rant and they just think they’re hardcore graffiti villains who sneer at ‘legal art walls.’

“They are nasty, trashy and vicious.”

“As it’s a school project they’ve destroyed and as their work is only average, the teachers thought they would give it a four out of ten and they’ve got detention so they can learn how to do graffiti writing properly.”

My Bulley now intends to the leave the wall as it is so people passing by can see the damage that the thoughtless vandals have caused.

He added: “I want people to see what they have done and what they have destroyed.”

The children’s hard work was completely covered with the graffiti.

They used a number of different colours and simple patterns to mask over the detailed sea-based artwork.