More than 15% of all crimes committed at churches and cemeteries last year happened in Yorkshire

Figures disclosed by police reveal the extent of thefts and lead roofing stolen from churches in the region, while horrifically there were also three incidents of children being sexually assaulted at church sites in South Yorkshire.

Despite more than 400 burglaries and thefts, a vicar at Halifax Minster which has seen multiple break-ins, stressed that these crimes are committed “out of sheer desperation”.

Some 903 crimes at church buildings and grounds were recorded by Yorkshire’s four police forces between July 2019 and June this year – out of more than 5,800 nationally.

Vandalism remains the most common crime at churches, with 256 incidents recorded.

There were also 103 assaults which took place on church sites, 254 thefts recorded and 142 burglaries.

While there were 49 reports of lead stolen from church edifices, the real figure may be higher as sometimes these are not immediately apparent, and organisations fear many thieves have been taking advantage of the pandemic and cancellation of religious services to target churches.

Crimes recorded in South Yorkshire churches and cemeteries include drug trafficking, possession of weapons charges and, horrifically, three rapes of a female child under 13.

South Yorkshire also had the highest number of reported lead thefts in the UK, with 22 alone in the year.

Halifax Minster is one of hundreds of churches, and other places of worship, which has been victim to criminal damage and thieves stealing cash from donation boxes.

Money was stolen and the vicar’s car was broken into following a Sunday service last September, and the Rev Canon Hilary Barber said there had been another break-in in recent weeks.

“Someone broke in through one of the stained glass windows and stole money from the donations box,” he said.

“The box is emptied daily so the amount of money they actually took was only around £15, but the damage cost about £3,000.”

Halifax Minster is a Grade-I listed building, with security measures difficult to come by when it comes to preserving the building.

Rev Barber added: “Nobody breaks into a church for fun. They break in for money, whether that’s to feed their families or to feed a particular habit.

“These crimes are often out of sheer desperation.”

Despite the vicar's sympathetic view, he said that increased number of break-ins meant that insurance costs were increasingly creeping upwards with many refusing to fully insure lead roofing now due to the frequency of it being stolen.

Drugs and violent crime were also an issue many places of worship in urban areas contend with.

"We have had to remove needles from the grounds in the past," he added.

"We sometimes have people coming in and smoking the 'wacky-baccy' outside the East End window – it doesn't bother me, except for when we have choir practice and the choristers are breathing it in."

Mo Metcalf-Fisher of the Countryside Alliance, which compiled the data, said: "Taking into account that during some of this year, the country was in lockdown, it is chilling to learn that criminals either acting alone or in gangs have taken advantage of this awful pandemic and continued to target rural churches.

"Of course, people need to have open access to our religious sanctuaries, but the warnings from last year backed up by these latest figures, must be heeded if we are to seriously protect our places of worship.

"We need to ramp up access to a greater amount of funding from the protective security scheme and ensure the scheme remains available going forward. It will also require greater vigilance from the public, particularly in rural areas, where suspicious activity must be reported to police."

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