A man is facing a criminal investigation for desecrating graves after he was filmed taking home wooden crosses from a graveyard to burn at home, but his actions have revealed a sad personal story.

The accused, 73, from the Barza commune in Olt county, Romania, was filmed by a witness taking several wooden crosses in a cart, with the footage being posted on TikTok.

But, according to Ion Anuta, the local mayor, it was not the first time that the man captured in the images had taken crosses from the village cemetery.

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This, he claimed, was not because he had no firewood, but because of his past, including his role as a highly appreciated fiddle player, who performed for the "good world" at restaurants in the Olt Valley.

Yet he retired after the death of his son decades before and Mr Anuta, quoted in Gandul, a Romanian online newspaper, said the accused was a "very decent man in his life", but that the suffering caused by the 19-year-old's death sent him "crazy and that "there's nothing you can do about him".

He said: "He has a pension. The man was a fiddler for the boyars. He sang at the biggest restaurant in Calimanești, he sang for Ceaușescu.

"He has a fantastic musical culture, if you talk to him. When you talk to him about music, it's over, he has a fantastic lucidity. But, he has a problem. The police take him, he is hospitalised and discharged after a few months."

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The mayor added that his fellow villagers were aware that the man was not aggressive and loved animals, often being accompanied by abandoned dogs and cats that he fed and sheltered.

However, a local resident chose to file a criminal case for desecrating graves.

Gandul quoted a conversation, with a woman saying: "The cross is brand new, look, it's stiff. Rujan is written on it," to which the suspect replied: "It's old!" The woman replied: "Well, what a wretched man!"

Representatives of the Olt County Police Inspectorate confirmed that a criminal investigation file was being worked on for the desecration of graves.

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