VANDALS have brought desecration and destruction to Radcliffe Parish Church.

Seventeen gravestones have been uprooted and pushed over, leaving two of them smashed.

The damage at the Church Green church is believed to have been caused on Tuesday night (Sept 25).

Verger Mrs Vera Beal said: "Some of the damaged gravestones are from fairly recent burials, including one from 1999, so it is going to cause a lot of distress to relatives of the deceased.

"It's sickening, especially for those whose loved ones have been laid to rest here."

Although the church has had problems in the past with gangs of youths using the churchyard as a drinking den, nothing on this scale has occurred before.

The vicar, the Rev Bryan Hackett, is on a sabbatical and in his absence, the team rector of St Thomas's, the Rev Chich Hewitt, is overseeing the church.

He said: "It's awful and tragic, and shows a complete lack of respect for the dead. Unfortunately, the church is not protected and consequently quite vulnerable, but you don't expect people to do things like this."