Priest laughs off deer's head left outside church

The priest in charge of a church where the severed head of a deer was left outside has said he would prefer venison sausages next time.

Speaking at his home near St Theresa of the Child Jesus Church in Totton, Hampshire, Canon Simon Treloar said he was unfazed by the incident on Friday.

He said he did not find out about the animal's head until after the police had already removed it.

"I just laughed," said Canon Treloar. "I don't see it as anything sinister or occult."

Whatever statement the culprits were trying to make, Canon Treloar said it had missed the point with him.

"My faith's a little bit bigger than that," he said. "And if they really want to impress me, leave me a couple of pounds of venison sausages.

"I suppose a pig's head would have been more useful, because you could at least cook with that - but I'm not quite sure what to do with a deer's head."

The deer's head left outside Canon Treloar's Catholic church comes a month after a similar incident, when another deer's head and an inverted cross were left outside a church in Lyndhurst.

In May last year, villagers in Burley found another deer's head placed on top of a memorial stone, with another cross arranged the same way.