The first link is to a recent story, the links following it are from older stories about similar events. It is both sad and disgraceful to hear of this happening. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-45744381 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-43051566 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-38676519 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-44731619
Sadly, lead theft seems to be not an uncommon occurrence. I had already read about the first church in your links. It must have been a well organised operation to have stolen 20 tonnes of lead roofing. My parish church has suffered some minor vandalism recently. We have teenagers who sit in the porch to smoke and then make burn marks on the doors and walls. It has happened a few times and necessitates repainting. Just a couple of weeks ago our donations box was broken into and the money stolen.
I am sorry to hear that, Symphorian. I haven't yet had the pleasure of visiting England, but I know that there are many beautiful churches there. It pains me to think of them being vandalized and defaced.
Methinks too many Anglican believers are gentle as doves and wise as sheep, rather than serpents. It should not take much thought to realize that when the church building has builders in and scaffolding in place, it provides an ideal opportunity for base criminal activity. Surely it would not have been difficult to arrange an extra vigilant watch and security checks to be in place while work was going on. Church Wardens are supposed to anticipate problems before they arise and take sensible measures to frustrate opportunist criminality. Are we so naive as to think that the world is becoming less dishonest as the time draws near. Matt.24:43.