Village church targeted by vandals
Village church targeted by vandals
MEMBERS of a Moorlands village community are appealing for help in finding the vandals who have spray painted graffiti on their parish church. The incident happened at St Peter's Church in Blythe Bridge overnight on Thursday, March 21 and Friday, March 22. The vandals spray painted the graffiti onto the gable end of St Peter's Church which is situated in Cheadle Road.
A spokesman for Staffordshire Police said: “Officers from Staffordshire Police were called to a report of criminal damage at St Peter’s Church on Cheadle Road in Blythe Bridge at 3.12pm on Friday, March 22.
“Graffiti was found on the outside of the church.
“We are appealing for anyone who has any information about the incident to contact us.”
Reverend Jonathan Roberts, of St Peter’s, confirmed that the criminal damage had been discovered on Friday.
He said: “It is very unusual as we have not had a problem with vandalism before. Hopefully this is a one-off incident.
“It is upsetting for anyone to find such graffiti on their property but for it to be on a church, it is naturally going to be upsetting for the wider community.
“However, in saying that, it is not stopping us from supporting the community and offering a place of worship.”
Reverend Roberts said that work has begun to clean the graffiti from the church. He added: “We have had lots of messages from people offering to help clean the graffiti off which we really appreciate.
“We are very grateful for the support we have had from the community and I would ask that if anyone knows anything about what happened then please contact the police to help them with their enquiries.”
The parish council is also backing Staffordshire Police’s appeal for witnesses into this incident.
Forsbrook Parish Council chairman Peter Jones said: “It is imperative that all members of the community work with the police to bring these people to account.”
Staffordshire Police confirmed yesterday, Tuesday, March 26, that enquiries into the incident are “on-going.”
Anyone with any information about the criminal damage at St Peter’s Church is urged to call Staffordshire Police on the non-emergency force number of 101 quoting incident number 501 of March 22.
Alternatively people can call Crimestoppers anonymously with information about crime on 0800 555 111, or through their Anonymous Online Form at www.crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information.
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