A town centre church plagued by crime and anti-social behaviour for decades is being forced to install CCTV cameras and alarms.

Grade II-listed St Mary & St Eanswythe in Folkestone was the scene of a horrific sexual assault which saw a drunken man attack a woman in her 70s inside the building. He then set about two others who came to her aid.

In March, Steven Reble was jailed for the incident last summer, which a judge at Canterbury Crown Court described as “bizarre, gratuitous and violent”.

While crimes of this nature are relatively rare, people living near to the church are regularly affected by anti-social behaviour taking place in the churchyard.

Earlier this year two headstones were destroyed by rowdy teens, with one witness telling KentOnline “it’s a riot every day” as pupils from local schools congregate in the area.

Parish priest Rev Dr John Walker said: “In June last year a traumatic event occurred.

“This is the main reason we want to install CCTV, but the external cameras will help with two other chronic anti-social problems.

“The first is vandalism to the memorials and gravestones we have in our churchyard.

"They’re either historic, or still important to local Folkestone residents.

“Once again, the police have been helpful to us, and have tried to trace those who have done this from witness statements, but they have advised us that CCTV would help to identify them, and that this would be a significant deterrent.

“Second is the continual reports we have of drug dealing and taking in the churchyard.

"This is a grave concern, especially as a school is adjacent to the churchyard.”

The church has applied for planning permission for a new security system which it is hoped will help keep volunteers safe and discourage people from misbehaving in the vicinity.

A statement submitted to Folkestone and Hythe District Council (FHDC) in support of the application says: “Over the past 30 years the church has suffered eight break-ins, three incurring serious damage to stained glass, a serious assault on three women in the Chancel and numerous incidents of assaults and anti-social behaviour in the churchyard.

“School children smashed a gravestone in the Garden of Remembrance into 20 or so pieces and then threw some of the large fragments into neighbouring gardens and at each other.

“The neighbour who witnessed this is now afraid to go into her garden.”

After the sexual assault, the church authorities met with FHDC and Kent Police.

The council provided alarms for the volunteer ‘welcomers’ who man the church when it is open to the public.

Provision for five internal and 10 external cameras has also been made under the Home Office Places of Worship scheme.

St Mary and St Eanswythe’s is home to relics of St Eanswythe, an Anglo Saxon princess and the earliest English saint.

Historians say the bones and teeth are almost certainly those of St Eanswythe, who was born in the seventh century and founded one of the first Christian monastic communities for women in The Bayle in Folkestone.