Catholics in Winchester were reeling this week after an apparently motiveless attack by an intruder in St Peter's Church.

A young man used a plant stand to damage the Our Lady of Winton statue and smash an alabaster Sacred Heart statue. A monstrance - used to display the sacred host - was also damaged.

Parish priest, Msgr Peter Doyle, said the attacks were "shocking, suffered most by the good people praying before the Blessed Sacrament during Eucharistic adoration.

"The statue of our Blessed Lady has been damaged and the Sacred Heart smashed. Clearly, it is the work of someone deranged and in need of prayer, not someone seeking to commit sacrilege or blasphemy."

But wounds had been opened, said a statement in the newsletter, signed by the priest, his assistant, Andrew Chandler and Anthony Glaysher, a deacon who will be ordained next month.

Ed Whalley, parish administrator, added: "It was a shock to the ladies who were worshipping at the time. They were horrified. One came to the parish office and called me over and I saw a man walking up the road to Jewry Street."