Leyland church and graves daubed in explicit graffiti

A vicar said he is “heartbroken” after obscene graffiti was daubed over nearly 40 gravestones and his church ahead of Good Friday services.

Sexually graphic images and expletives were sprayed overnight at St James Church in Leyland, near Preston.

Graffiti claiming “God is a lie” was also scrawled on the church’s exterior.

Lancashire Police said they were treating the attack as a “hate crime”, while the Reverend Marc Wolverson described the perpetrators as “very sad, broken people”.

Mr Wolverson said the graffiti came “at the height of devotion and worship and remembering Jesus” over the Easter period.

He told BBC North West Tonight the church had experienced “minor vandalism” previously, such as campfires and drunken people leaving tins, but “nothing so extreme and horrendous” as the attack overnight.

The vicar said the graffiti attack “seems much more targeted… with an evil intent and that’s what makes me very sad”.

He added that it was “the worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my 28 years as a vicar – just literally in tears”.

“I think the kind of people who would do this are just very sad, broken people.

“I don’t know what would motivate someone to act this way. I feel very sorry for them.”

Some people turned up to check their relatives’ gravestones ahead of the Good Friday service and described the graffiti as “absolutely disgusting”.

Another local resident Mikey Hindle said it was “madness”, adding: “Who in their right mind goes and does that to a church?”

Det Sgt Lee Jamieson, from Lancashire Police, said: “This is a disgraceful act of vandalism which shows a complete lack of respect and which has left the church and its parishioners understandably extremely upset, especially given the time of year.

“We are taking this matter incredibly seriously and this is being treated as a hate crime.”