Vandals Throw Flower Pots Through The Windows of a Church in Egham

Country: United Kingdom

Date of incident: December 18, 2022


Between the 18th and 19th of December, an unknown perpetrator destroyed several windows of the St. John of Rochester Catholic church in Egham Hythe. The perpetrator smashed the windows by throwing flower pots through them. The shattered glass spread over the floor and the incident was discovered by a church volunteer, Anne-do Bauchot. She and other church members said they were "heartbroken" by seeing this attack. Also, because of this, the church was not able to hold their traditional Christmas Eve service.

The police were notified and have started investigations. 

Ms Bauchot told the facts at SurreyLive: “There was no running water so I decided to go to the church in the morning to see if there were any burst pipes. As soon as I arrived I realised there were broken flower pots on the outside and the windows were damaged.

 

“I went to the church and I realised even more windows had been completely smashed, flower pots had been sent through the windows and broken on the floor. It was a sad state of affairs really.

“I was really heartbroken. You put lots of love and effort into that place, you want to keep it going. What kind of lives do they [the vandals] have to be in to feel it’s right to smash the windows?"

The liturgy coordinator of the church, Fran Thomas, said that this was sadly not the first time the church had been attacked. In March 2020 it was attacked with arson and previously there had been a rifle damage.

Fran Thomas added: “It’s sad because it's happening around Christmas time. We are not a wealthy church and we don’t have the finances to sort this out. The church is unusable for the foreseeable future.

 

“It’s the community which has been attacked, not just the physical building. There was always a big congregation on Christmas Eve, and all the families would turn out. I left it ready at 2pm on Sunday afternoon and at 8am Monday morning we were greeted by all that mess and mayhem.”

Source: getsurrey.co.uk

Symbolic Photo: Unsplash