St Helen's Church in Cliffe sees roof repaired by Sittingbourne firm All Roofs UK after vandalism
Published: 17:28, 30 April 2022
Updated: 17:30, 30 April 2022
The roof of a 12th century church, vandalised by a group of youths, has been repaired.
There was outrage after video footage captured a group of boys - some believed to be as young as 11 or 12 - as they climbed on the roof and threw stones at the stained glass windows of St Helen's Church in Cliffe on Easter Monday.
Tiles were also pulled from the top of the church's boiler room and the Victorian Charnel House in the corner of the churchyard.
The cost of the damage was expected to run into thousands of pounds and the Rev Jill Wright, associate minister at the church, feared it could take months.
But after seeing the news on KentOnline, roofing firm All Roofs UK stepped in to repair some of the damage.
A spokesman for the Sittingbourne company said: "Our teams have been out to St Helen’s Church and undertaken repairs of all broken tiles caused by vandalism recently. As promised, we covered all material and labour costs to help the church try and find funds to repair stained glass windows which were also broken.
"Thank you everyone for all your kind messages, emails and comments. It is always a pleasure to be able to give something back to the community.
"After speaking with some of the parents of the children concerned they all offered to help assist us in any way possible.
"I remember once being a young kid, I am hoping by us helping the church repair roof everybody can move on from this as I know the parents have not took lightly to this."
After footage of the vandalism was shared online, one of the parents of the boys came forward, saying what his son did was "inexcusable" but said his family are not "scum".
Meanwhile, the mother of two of the other boys involved had visited the church warden with her sons to apologise.
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Alex Langridge