A SOUTHAMPTON family say they are disgusted after their tributes to a beloved son and brother were torn down.

Matthew Byrne, 26, died after being hit by a car at a busy Southampton junction in January last year.

And now Aimee Byrne and other members of his family visit the corner of Anglesea Road and Winchester Road every week to put fresh flowers out in memory Matthew.

But Aimee, 25, said she was devastated when she discovered that the tributes had been torn down, just hours after placing new flowers.

Now, they want answers as to who would do this, with the family originally putting flowers up also to make drivers more aware of the junction.

Aimee, who lives in Shirley, said: "It feels like an attack on Matthew and on his memory.

"He is a beloved brother, son and grandson.

"There are pictures of Matthew and notes on the fence on the corner of the road, and we regularly put down flowers.

"We take pride in the fact that we visit more than once a week. Our last visit was on Saturday evening, and we then discovered that they had been taken down.

"It's disgusting and we just want to know who would do this."

Aimee added that the family planned on putting more tributes up this weekend having received support from the community.

As reported by the Daily Echo, an inquest heard that Matthew was crossing Winchester Road when he was hit by a grey Vauxhall Astra, and suffered serious rib, arm, leg and skull fractures.

He was pronounced dead a short time after the incident, which happened around 7.30am on January 27 last year.

The inquest heard that driver Shane Wyatt was estimated to be driving between 33mph and 43mph on the 30mph road.

Speaking after the inquest in February, Mr Byrne's mum Liz paid tribute to her son.

She said: "He grew to become a selfless, kind, intelligent, extremely funny and cheeky young man.

"Our thoughts and gratitude go to Matthew's devastated close friends and colleagues. We will never forget what has happened."

Matthew's sister Aimee now says that they are hoping for information to understand who has taken down the tributes, and why.

She added: "Your mind goes to the worst straight away, but we just want to know why, who, and why now? It's a tribute to Matthew as a person, we want it to stay that way."

Southampton City Council said that no contact was made to them about the tributes in any way.

A spokesperson added: "Neither the customer services team or our street cleansing team are aware of complaints regarding the tributes or any requests to have them removed.

"I can confirm that we have not had any involvement with the removal of the tribute."