St Bethany Church Whitleigh
The church was broken into and some items were stolen. Our Victim worker contacted the church and asked if they wanted any direct reparation done by the offenders.
The church said yes and asked if the graffiti on the back wall could be painted over and the railings on the side be scraped and repainted in a heavy duty metal paint.
This was agreed and the offenders came to the church once a week after they finished school and completed the work as directed by the church in four sessions.
A real nice side of this happening was that two members of the church came to see the work being done and met the offenders.
In conversation over a cup of tea the two members of the church asked the offenders why they broke into the church and were surprised by the answer. At the time of the burglary some members of the church whilst leaving of an evening, received some abuse from some young people. They then linked this burglary to the abuse that they received believing the church was becoming a target.
The answer the offenders gave was that they saw a skylight open when randomly walking past and just went into to see what they could find for a laugh.
It was also good for the offenders to see the impact of what they thought was a bit of fun had on the members of the church and to be questioned by the direct victims of their crime.