Crucifixes stolen in £5k metal raid on church

Valuable brass candlesticks, crucifixes and other religious items have been stolen from a church by metal thieves.

The £5,000 haul was taken from St Joseph's RC Church, on the Walsall-Sandwell border.

Parish priest Father Timothy Burke today branded the crime "disgusting" and said it had upset parishioners and left him unable to celebrate mass there. Worshippers arrived at the church, in Birchfield Way on the Yew Tree Estate, on Sunday morning to find a side door had been forced and brass items stolen.

Among the items taken were a tabernacle, a chalice and two silver plated ciboria.

Nativity figurines were also damaged as the thieves rifled through the church looking for precious metal.

Father Burke said: "I walked in to the church on Sunday morning and I was gobsmacked and a lot of people felt really upset. It's disgusting really.

"I have been at this church for 45 years now, and it's only a little church which I look after as well as Holy Cross in Stone Cross, and it's the first time it has ever been broken into."

Parishioners who arrived for mass at 9am on Sunday were forced to go to Holy Cross at 11am instead.

But Father Burke said he hoped to be able to say mass at St Joseph's again on Sunday after kind donations to replace the stolen items by parishioners, other churches and local schools.

Police today pleaded with the thieves to return the items.

Pc Adam Harris, from West Bromwich police station, said: "Sentimental value and funding will make it impossible to replace these items. We are appealing for anyone who may have seen suspicious activity around the church overnight on Saturday and we ask for scrap and second hand dealers to contact us if they are offered any brass items that look like they belong in a church."

Anyone with information should call police on 101.