Thieves urinates in church's holy water

Thieves broke into the St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday with the thought of stealing valuables and antiques, but when the operation did not go as planned, the would-be-thieves peed in the holy water stoup.

The disrespectful act was discovered on Thursday morning when cleaners arrived to find a large window had been smashed, causing more than £1,000 of damage.

The Priest of the church stated with disgust that it is incredible and disgusting that they would actually relieve themselves in the stoup.

"Our cleaning volunteers came in on Thursday morning and saw the damage," Father Marc Lyden-Smith told Sunderland Echo.

I’m pretty angry that they could be so disrespectful, damaged glass and stolen items can be replaced, but actions like that are pretty disgusting really, but the Pope has called a year of mercy, so we’ll be thinking of that.”

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A police officer noticed there seemed to be urine in the holy water stoup. It is incredible. It has been cleaned out, of course," he further said.

The church confirmed the burglar attempt on twitter, check tweet below.

Holy water is used by Catholics to make the sign of the cross when they come into church and the stoup or font is usually by the entrance.