Heritage Crime in England

#heritagecrimeconf closes-protecting heritage@britishlibrary @PoliceChiefs @HistoricEngland https://t.co/8j3ANx6VFZ pic.twitter.com/JYvjNQp1N3

— Herts Police (@HertsPolice) 11 April 2016

It will be interesting to read the text and presentations of some of the talks at the Heritage Crime conference held at the British Library. It is clear that there are concerns about the following areas:

a. Thefts from museum collections

b. Church lead theft

c. Damage to and removal of objects from scheduled and previously unrecorded archaeological sites

The topic of nighthawking / metal-detecting on scheduled sites came up at the All Party Committee on Cultural Property at Westminster last month. It is worth noting that the two representatives from a certain national museum were remarkably silent on the subject, while some of us were drawing attention to examples of damage in various counties across East Anglia. 

Charges made over church lead thefts in Norfolk

There has been some concern about the level of church lead thefts in Norfolk and Suffolk over the last few months. On Friday Norfolk Constabulary issued a statement:

Police have charged a man in connection with lead thefts from two churches in Norfolk. 

Marian Cristian Nitu, aged 22 and from Birmingham, has been charged with two counts of theft. 

The charges relate to the theft of lead from St Peter’s Church in Guestwick in September 2014 and All Saints Church in Alby in October 2015. 

Nitu has been remanded in police custody and is due to appear before Norwich Magistrates Court on Friday 29 January 2016.

For further details of the Norfolk thefts see here.