MAGISTRATES have sentenced a man who urinated in Holy water in a West Somerset church’s stoup bowl and also damaged its altar cross.

The offences happened in St Andrew’s Church, Minehead, on Sunday, October 19 last year.

Wilfred Owen, aged 30, of Church Lane, Norton Fitzwarren, pleaded guilty to religiously aggravated criminal damage when he appeared in court a few days later, and the case was adjourned for the probation service to prepare a pre-sentence report.

Owen was sentenced in Taunton Deane Magistrates Court this week after police arrested him following his failure to turn up for a hearing in January.

He was ordered to pay £1,000 compensation to the church and a further £200 to TK Maxx for stealing T-shirts from its Bath store.