Community rallies after church statue damaged

POLICE PROBE AFTER 'VANDAL' ATTACK

- By POPPY KENNEDY Reporter [e-mail]

A PARISH priest has spoken of his shock after a church statue was pushed to the ground and the head was “cut off”.

Enquiries are ongoing after the statue of Our Lady, outside St Alphonsus Church in North Ormesby, was vandalised on Tuesday.

Father John Idio, parish priest of the Sacred Heart in Middlesbrough, which includes St Alphonsus, said: “A parishioner called me on Tuesday evening to say the statue had been damaged.

“I rushed over and saw it had been vandalised. Someone had pushed it to the ground and the head had been cut off and other parts broken.”

A police report was made and, having spoken to Monsignor Gerard Robinson, the vicar general, Father John collected the pieces to keep them safe, with the hope of restoring the statue.