Theft misery for vandal-hit church

A CHURCH warden is asking Lees people to help catch a vandal who has caused thousands of pounds of damage to his church.

The congregation at St Thomas’s is in despair following a spate of attacks on the building — the latest being lead stripped from the roof.

Church warden Roy Atkinson found the leak when he went inside the Grade II Listed building on Sunday morning. A contractor found lead had been stripped from the roof.

The church is now low on money and may even become uninsured if it can’t afford the repairs.

Mr Atkinson said: “The church is absolutely superb, it’s a great building, but we have been faced with a lot of attacks.

“The contractor can’t put a price on these repairs but says there is a lot of damage. We’ve had to pay tens of thousands of pounds for repairs like this before now, and we can’t afford it.

“If local people could keep an eye out for these villains we would be grateful. Any help we can get would be good.”