Lost confidence as priest feels threatened

Father van der Most has led the congregation at St Catherine's Church in Beach Road for almost 20 years.

Yesterday (Wednesday) he told the Gazette that he constantly felt "under threat" in his home, which adjoins the church, and said he had "no confidence whatsoever" in the police when dealing with the various attacks he has experienced.

His comments followed two more thefts from the church '“ on Sunday night 1,000 of lead was stolen from the roof of the church hall, and on Tuesday night tiles were taken from his garage roof and smashed on the ground.

The attacks were the latest in a long list of incidents at the church in recent years, ranging from stones thrown through windows and damage to cars, to people breaking into the church and intruders threatening Father van der Most in his home.

In February, 2005, the Gazette reported that someone had stolen the arms from a crucifix outside the church and Father van der Most has had three car trailers stolen, as well as countless plants and a ladder.

"You contact the police and all you get is a crime number," he said.

"I don't think that the police are really interested in these sorts of crimes.

"They are interested in car crime and road crashes and not in what happens to ordinary people in their houses or to a church."

Diane Philbey, assistant to the priest, said: "It makes me feel ashamed of the police force. My father was in the Metropolitan Police and I saw how hard he worked.

"I have reported lots of crimes to the police but nothing seems to get done. It is as if we are not being taken seriously.

"We even called 999 when an intruder was threatening the Father last summer and we didn't get a response from that.

"You would think they would come down and show an interest, otherwise how are they going to catch these people? It's like they just don't care."

Responding to the comments, Insp Mark Hammond of Littlehampton Police said that he hoped the church would get in contact with him to discuss the problems.

He explained that not all crimes reported to the force were passed on to the local police stations and said that the best point of contact would be a local officer.

"We have had some great successes with other churches, particularly St Margaret's in Angmering," he said.

"There was a two-way flow of information there and we were able to address the issues and resolve them.

"My advice would be for the church to get in contact with either their community support officers or myself, either on the phone, through our website or at the station, to talk about these problems."